Performance Rocketry Nike Smoke 1/3 Scale (5.5)
Performance Rocketry - Nike Smoke 1/3 Scale (5.5) {Kit}
Contributed by Jack Caynon
| Construction Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
| Flight Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
| Overall Rating: | starstarstarstarstar |
| Published: | 2015-01-19 |
| Manufacturer: | Performance Rocketry  |
Brief
This kit is the 1/3 scale model of NASA's Nike Smoke. The tubing is 5.5 inch diameter G-10 fiberglass. The Nike Smoke was a rocket that NASA would use to determine windspeed at high altitudes before they would launch the Saturn V moon rockets.
Components
This review covers the "old" kit, not the new one. The old kit had a prefab fiberglass fin can rather than the 4 fins through-the-wall construction of the current kit. This kit is now about seven years old and she still is an awesome flying machine!
Construction
The stock kit is 77 inches long and I found it to be too compact to have an effective anti-zipper rocket motor section design. So the middle section of the rocket was stretched by a foot. The rocket stands 88 inches tall but even with the extra length, I don't believe the scale profile is that far off. As with the new kit, the old kit's parts were precision cut G-10 fiberglass. However, I ditched the fiberglass centering rings bulkheads for thick Baltic birch plywood ones.
Originally built to take 75mm motors, in 2008, a bad motor wouldn't come up to pressure and allowed the rocket to sit on the launch pad with her motor section on fire. The motor mount tube and the motor retainer were completely destroyed. Yet, instead of junking the rocket, Mike Fisher of Binder Design Rocketry, removed all of the charred material and inserted a new 4 inch motor mount tube and a simple retainer using bolts and washers. This upgrade turned the rocket into an awesome flying machine!
Finishing
The fiberglass tubing, fin can, and nose cone are easy to prepare for finishing. I sanded and prepped the surface and took her to an auto body shop to be painted. She looked wonderful back in 2008 and still looks just as good today!
Flight
This rocket flies like a dream, straight and true for every flight. It's also as tough as a tank, recovering from damage caused by the fire and by my failure to use the mach delay feature on my altimeter when I used a motor that sent her supersonic. On her most memorable flight, we had to wait for an opening in the cloud cover over our site before she could launch. Once the opening occurred, she launched straight through the center of the opening in the clouds just as a beam of sunlight gleamed off of her beautiful white body. The shear perfection of that launch brought a tear of joy to my eye.
Recovery
Performance Rocketry kits are very basic. They provide construction materials and nothing else. I use B2 Rocketry parachutes and Rocketman tubular nylon and Kevlar for shock cords. With this gear, the rocket always recovers nicely. I also fly using a Walston tracker inserted into a tube mounted inside the nose cone to help me recover the rocket.
Summary
Although Performance Rocketry doesn't make the kit with the fin can any more, if you can find one out there, do whatever you can to obtain it. This rocket always got people at our launches to stop whatever they were doing to watch her fly. She's a beauty and will always be one of the most stable yet exciting rocket you may fly.
Other Reviews
- Performance Rocketry 1/3 Scale 5.5" Nike Smoke By Gary Tortora (April 12, 2011)
Brief This is Performance Rocketry's 1/3 Scale 5.5" Nike Smoke. The kit stands 77" tall and is made in either G10 or G12. For my kit I wanted a few things different from the standard 54mm single deploy version, I had mine made with a 75mm MM and dual deploy. My finished build weight with everything but the motor came in at 16lbs. Components The kits parts were all ...
 |
 |
Flights
Sponsored Ads
|
|