Brief:
This article describes how I went about making a 'functional' Nike Smoke nose cone from Quest components. 'Functional' is probably a poor choice of words, but describes my goal.

Background:

The purpose of the Nike Smoke system was to visually test upper atmospheric winds. Its nose cone was filled with various chemicals (titanium tetrachloride in the final operational version), which would produce a visible trail when released. During powered flight, an inlet pipe in the tip of the cone would force the TiCl4 out ports in its base. The resulting trails were visible to 75,000 ft.

When I read about a 'vintage' Enerjet kit with a working nose cone (see attached sketch), the gears began turning.

Construction:
The basis of this build are the Quest Nike Smoke cone and plastic fin can. This fits their T35 tubing. I used a variety of parts to complete the rocket.

In a previous Quest Smoke conversion I found that, with a little grinding, a 29mm phenolic tube fits pretty well in the plastic fin can. So, I used a small piece of Giant Leap 29mm tubing and then mounted a 24mm tube in that. A Kevlarleader is tied to the neck of the fin can. An elastic shock cord is tied to that Kevlarand to the nose section.

As I was thinking about the cone modification, I realized that I probably wanted access to the base of the cone so I added a payload section. I made this from a short piece of the T35 tubing, a piece of phenolic liner for a 38mm EX motor, a hand cut bulkhead, and loop of 1/4" Kevlar.

For the launch lug, I used a long piece of 6mm tubing on top of a balsa stand-off. The 6mm tube fits a 3/16" rod well enough. The standoff is needed to clear the Nike Smoke cone.

Now, on to the star of this show...my attempt to make a functional Nike Smoke cone. That is, one that will spew tracking powder as it boosts. You can see the guts in the photo. The anticipated airflow is shown with the arrows.

I cut the tip off both halves of the cone and affixed an Estes lug in one half with a dab of hot-glue. This lug feeds air into a First Fire igniter tube. I built-up the lug with some tape so it was snug in the larger tube. The holes in the lower part of this tube should then blow the powder out a vent in the cone itself (which wasn't cut when the photo was taken).

The orange plastic cap fits almost perfectly in the cone's shoulder and is used to help guide the tracking powder out the vent hole. A conical shape would have probably been a better choice, but that's the best thing I found. The single vent was later cut in the the short transition section just above the plastic insert and aligned with the lower hole in the First Fire tube. The ear plug protruding from the end was replaced with a removable dowel plug that extends to the bottom of the lower hole.

Flight:
Prep of the rocket itself was typical: friction fit a D12-7 motor, add dog barf wadding and attach a 12" nylon 'chute.

I filled one half of the cone with orange tracking powder and taped the two halves together. The intake and vent ports were also taped-over until it was on the pad.

The flight was good and a lot of the powder was ejected. Viewing the video on my computer, you can see a hint of the powder after ignition. I attached a screen snap and you can barely discern a reddish tinge to the otherwise white exhaust. On recovery, there was also all over the side of the rocket body. All-in-all, it was not impressive and was a big mess.

Summary:
I succeeded in modifying a Quest Nike Smoke cone so that it ejects tracking powder during boost. Unfortunately, there was little visible evidence during the flight and it was messy. So, I plan to wash-up the cone and glue it together. I could load more powder through the plug in its base. However, future flights will probably be without tracking powder. Please comment if you have ever tried this or have heard of others doing so.