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Estes - Cosmic Cobra {Kit} (1262) [2002-2008]

Published:2005-01-14
Manufacturer:Estes
Diameter:1.3300 inches
Length:19.5000 inches
Skill Level:1
Style:Helicopter
Construction Rating:
Flight Rating:
Overall Rating:

Contributed by

Brief:
The Cosmic Cobra is a low power rocket that recovers in 2 pieces: the nose cone returns on helicopter-like blades and the body tube recovers by parachute.

Construction:
The kit contains:

  • 1 12" yellow body tube
  • 2 piece fin can
  • nose cone with 3 helicopter blades
  • 12" chute

This kit was easy to build and took less than one hour to complete.

Finishing:
No finishing was required. The kit comes with a cool decal.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
First flight was on a B6-2. Great flight but even with 5 sheets wadding, it was too much for the parachute.

Second flight was on a C6-3 and 6 pieces of wadding. Higher fligth but same result with the parachute.

Third flight was on a B6-4, which is too long of a delay, causing the rocket to eject from only 70ft up. However, with 8 sheets wadding it recovered safely.

I like that it has good, stable flights but don't use B6-4 or C6-5 motors.

Recovery:
PROs: the helicopter nose is cool and is more than likely to work well.

CONs: it needs 8 sheets wadding to keep from burning the parachute.M/P>

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
The Cosmic Cobra is a cool first or second rocket. For less than $12, it's a great deal. Get this rocket!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

    Flight Log

    DateRocket NameMotor(s)AltitudeNotes
    2002-07-14Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraC6-3- Great flight. Chute didn't deploy because of packing problem associated with copter blades, but no ...
    2002-08-28Robert Vaughan's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-6- Lawn dart! Delay was way too long, ejected on the ground and popped the rocket out of the dirt. 1 ...
    2002-08-28Robert Vaughan's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Second lawn dart. Scorched copter blades, tube crunched in middle, ripped at the top, and broke 2 ...
    2002-09-01Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraB6-6- Much better recovery. Nose cone helicoptered in in the up position.
    2002-11-27Greg Deeter's Estes Cosmic CobraD21-7- D21-7 Blue Thunder. Perhaps too much line chalk made it unstable.Took off super fast and ...
    2002-11-27Greg Deeter's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Straight up, nice flight. Used 12 Estes plastic chute.Landed about 200 feet away, perfect ...
    2003-04-27Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraC6-3- The only rocket to survive undamaged when my carrier fell out of the back of the van. Everything ...
    2003-05-03Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Slow boost with slight downwind arc. Streamer got tangled with copter for a few seconds, but then ...
    2003-05-18Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Nice slow boost, arcing into wind. Copter nose separated cleanly without tangling in 54x2 mylar ...
    2003-05-25Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Long slow boost straight into sun. The mylar 2x54 streamer worked great again, and the body landed ...
    2003-05-31David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Great first model rocket flight, but melted the chute.
    2003-05-31David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Another great flight, another melted chute
    2003-06-01Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraB6-4- Best flight ever. Everything worked as advertised.
    2003-06-15Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Nice high boost with slight weather-cocking. On 54x2 streamer, the body glided tail-first upwind ...
    2003-07-06Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Nice straight boost. Clean separation. With 2x54in streamer, the booster has significant ...
    2003-07-06 Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraB6-4- Kid's launch. The nose cone again recovered in the up position. Looks cool that way, but I don't ...
    2003-07-27Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Slow arcing boost into the wind. Perfect ejection. Copter drifted downwind with 12 second hang ...
    2003-09-27Chan Stevens's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3-
    2004-04-05Forrest Henry's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Lawn dart! Everything is just too tight in there (and we packed it as loose as we could)! Rocket ...
    2004-04-10Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Arced into wind. Wiggled a lot during boost. Good copter deployment. Mylar streamer got a bit ...
    2004-04-19Eric Maher's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Worked perfectly. The helicopter recovery of the nosecone was very cool.
    2004-06-06Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Nice boost straight up. Should have angled rod into wind more. Booster drifted across two soccer ...
    2004-06-20Kyle Hancock's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Both chute and coptor deployed OK.
    2004-07-24Brian Mercer's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-4- Nice flight, until it turned into a pile driver in the parking lot. I may replace the nose cone ...
    2004-08-08Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-4- Slow arching boost and coast. Clean separation. Copter landed safe on grass after nice spinning ...
    2004-10-31Mark Muir's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Helicopter nose cone ejected but parachute did not. Rear section core sampled but no damage at ...
    2004-11-11Mark Muir's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Nose cone helicoptered back but engine side of tube didn't get a parachute ejection so it lawn ...
    2005-01-21Andrew Grippo's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Wind held down altitude but nose cone was able to begin spinning just before it landed.
    2005-01-21Andrew Grippo's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Good flight and delay. High altitude allowed nose cone enough time to helicopter perfectly to ...
    2005-04-17Chase Hrncir's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Broke the Curse of the Cobra. Nobody else in the Challenger club has had any luck with these, but ...
    2005-05-08Chase Hrncir's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- First launch ever at Sportflyers Estates, Brookshire, TX. Great flight. A little windy so it ...
    2005-05-18John Chapman's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- After two COMPLETE failures, we modified by gluing BT-5 tube into the nose cone, with screw eye, ...
    2005-08-21Bob Cox's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-4- Slow takeoff with wiggle during boost. Angled into wind and ejected very late, about 60 feet up. ...
    2005-08-27John Chapman's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Modified cobra with no chute and attached cone/rotor - deployed without problem. Crepe paper ...
    2005-09-10Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- First flight of rocket built with my daughter. Helicopter recovery of the nose cone is quite a ...
    2005-10-10Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Nice flight on a cold, damp, rain shortened day.
    2005-10-15Bill Eichelberger's Estes - Cosmic CobraB6-4- Always entertaining. Flight was great. Recovery a little less so due to parachute failure, but no ...
    2005-11-03Andrew Grippo's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Rocket rod whipped off pad and then nose cone stuck at deployment. Lawn dart with top section of ...
    2005-11-05Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Nice high flight. Body and helicopter nose cone landed very close together
    2006-01-27Mark Edwards's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Inaugural flight of the CC. Helicopter nose cone deployed successfully. Parachute failed to eject, ...
    2006-02-12Joe Policy's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Fairly straight flight, very nice. Kids have fun chasing the helicopter/nose cone.
    2006-03-09Dave Bishop's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Despite the high wind, excellent launch and great flight of helicopter section.
    2006-03-19Tom+Maggie Brogan's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Built last nite Launched this am. very windy. Nice straight boost, WC slightly, looked great. ...
    2006-04-20David Culp's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Student forgot to screw motor retainer on. Ejected motor at apogee. Lawn darted into asphalt, made ...
    2006-04-30Tom+Maggie Brogan's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- 2nd flight for this rocket. Arced back over our heads over the trees and headed for the highway! ...
    2006-05-18David Culp's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Love this rocket, perfect flight in almost no wind. Straigh up boost, good seperation and easy ...
    2006-05-27Chan Stevens's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5-
    2006-06-04Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4-
    2006-06-25Jillian+Benjamin Fried's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Nose helicopter apparatus did not deploy and parachute melted (oops forgot wadding - wouldn't have ...
    2006-08-12Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4-
    2006-09-12Lucas Kalathas's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Well, awesome takeoff, but the nosecone never ejected. Rocket came down fast and hard, ending up ...
    2006-10-10Mal McClenaghan's Estes Cosmic CobraA8-3- Oops! Loaded wrong motor. Nowhere near enough thrust for this rocket. Recovered without damage.
    2006-10-10Mal McClenaghan's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Parachute didn't deploy. ? packed too tight, space is at a premium in this airframe. Lawn dart. ...
    2006-11-18Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-4- Chute tangled. Motor is a little weak for this rocket.
    2007-01-11Mark Edwards's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Failed to eject the NC. Lawn Dart, but repairable. Need to cutoff a couple inches of upper part of ...
    2007-02-18Kyle Hancock's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4-
    2007-04-09Mal McClenaghan's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Textbook flight. Great recovery. Our first flight with the parachute tucked in between the rotor ...
    2007-07-01Taylor Gonnerman's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Perfect flight. The helicopter recovery of the nose cone is a real crowd pleaser, especially if ...
    2007-08-12Mark Van+Luvender's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-2- Excellent flight - good parachute, great helicopter rotation on the nose cone.
    2007-09-09 Steve Lindeman's Cosmic Cobra (modified)B6-4- Good boost with seperation just after apogee. Both body tube and nose cone were recovered down ...
    2007-09-16Bob Harrington's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Parachute tangled and didn't open but suffered no damage.
    2008-06-08Mal McClenaghan's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- First flight after repair. Textbook flight and recovery.
    2008-06-14JST's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Ascended to about 950 feet. Ejection charge failed to kick nosecone or chute out. Flight quickly ...
    2008-07-13David Montgomery's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5600 feet Excellent flight with good autorotation of nosecone/rotors and recovery via parachute of main body ...
    2008-11-02David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4168 feet I flew the Cobra with a MaxTrax altitude capsule and 2 standard tracking streamers. I would guess ...
    2008-11-02David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- This time, the MaxTrax capsule failed because it fell horizontal. This flight was much higher than ...
    2008-11-08 David Montgomery's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5600 feet Perfect from liftoff to recovery; both sections returned as designedwith no damage.
    2008-11-11David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4-
    2009-01-01 Jim Bassham's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Everything worked, but blades popped off the nose cone on landing. Glue bond was never that great.
    2009-01-01 Jim Bassham's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- First flight - worked as advertised. It is hard to pack chute and blades into body tube. Longer ...
    2009-01-11 Jim Bassham's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Nose cone flew fine, but completely fried the chute on the rocket. Came down VERY hard, but landed ...
    2009-01-15David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- A perfect flight. I flew the booster without a parachute; it glides down nicely and safely with ...
    2009-02-21John Venable's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-7- No Helicopter blades jut a small stock chute. Nice flight to maybe 600'. Gonna rebuild her to fly ...
    2009-05-21Jim Bassham's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- 4th flight of the Cosmic Cobra. Replaced 'chute, tried packing it between the rotor blades. Nose ...
    2009-06-30Alan Kaiser's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- I didn't see this one too well because it shot up directly over and behind me. Nice flight though. ...
    2009-07-11John Bergsmith's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Once you learn the trick to packing the chute, it's a reliable performer. Heli deployed and was ...
    2009-07-11John Bergsmith's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Flight number 2 on the delay. I like the 3 second delay better. However, still a cool flight.
    2009-11-27Alan Kaiser's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Great flight and recovery. The copter cone came down exactly as expected.
    2010-03-30John Bishop's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4- Maiden flt. Seemed underpowered on B6-4. Packed chute between blades. Ejection didn't fully pop ...
    2010-03-30John Bishop's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Better flight, loaded 'chute under rotors. Nice ejection and helicopter effect. When I found the ...
    2010-04-03John Bishop's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-5- Flew without parachute. Good recovery of body section, but took my eye off the helicopter. Lost ...
    2010-07-31James Weaver's Estes Cosmic CobraB4-4- Seemed to struggle off of the pad. Delay was way too long for motor/rocket combo. Perfect ...
    2011-09-10Alan Kaiser's Estes Cosmic CobraA8-3- Nose cone jammed at ejection and the rocket came in and dug into the ground. Body tube was split ...
    2011-12-17David Sindel's Estes Cosmic CobraC6-3- Took off at an angle.
    2012-01-07Ed Rodrigo's Cosmic Cobra (1262)C6-5- Due to low wind conditions and additional weight due to length modification, decided to use a C6-5 ...
    2012-01-07Ed Rodrigo's Cosmic Cobra (1262)C6-5- Works well with C6-5. Strong weathercocking.
    2012-01-07Ed Rodrigo's Cosmic Cobra (1262)C6-5- Very strong weathercocking and delayed ejection charge led to chute deployment about 25 feet off ...
    2012-07-11 Bob Francis's SpindriftB6-4- Time: 7:57 pm. Temperature: 78 degrees. Wind: 10 - 15 mph from the east. Weather: Clear. First ...
    2012-07-20 Bob Francis's SpindriftB6-4- Good flight, arced towards 135 degrees. Good separation. Rocket body tumbled down. Parachute ...
    2012-07-22Bob Francis's SpindriftB6-4- Time: 2:01 pm. Temperature: 85 degrees. Wind: Calm. Weather: Cloudy. Good flight, arced towards ...
    2015-03-01 Ken E. Coyote's Estes Cosmic CobraB6-4150 feet Should've known better than to try to fly on a snowy humid 30F day. None of my parachutes were ...

    Comments:

    G.A.D. (September 3, 2002)

    We have had a hard time figuring out how to get a good clean deployment from this rocket. On the first flight the nosecone separated but the ?copter blades barely had time to fold out. The parachute was partially melted and failed to deploy fully. The second flight was a good one. On the third flight the combination of chute and ?copter blades was too much to eject and it lawn-darted. [Note to EMRR, I'll send a Pic] I'm considering how rebuild this for more consistent ejection. I may lengthen the body tube and use a piston of some sort.

    J.R. (December 11, 2003)

    I think this is an excellent rocket. It's fun to fly and watch this rocket's recovery. Especially on a C6-5. The parachute melting annoyed me a lot though.

    unknown (December 18, 2003)

    This is a great rocket. But it's basically a E2X version of the Hyper X.

    F.H. (April 6, 2004)

    The picture above looks EXACTLY like mine after just one flight. Everything just packs way too tight. If Estes replaces this kit I will build it with a streamer to reduce the amount of stuff to pack into the body tube.

    B.A. (March 8, 2006)

    Once you get the knack of how to lead the blades and a chute, this is a great rocket. All of the kids love it, and I've had the nosecone take over 2 minutes to come down at times.

    M.S. (October 23, 2006)

    After a couple of failures using the rotors, we have scrapped the helicopter retrieval completely and added a streamer to all 3 Cosmic Cobras that my kids own. Much easier to load and higher percentage of recovery. We have flown one of the Cobras at least 15 times. They all look like they will last a long time. With less weight, a C motor makes a really nice flight!

    J.G. (June 15, 2008)

    This rocket is what I refer to as a "Titanic". Very first flight was also its last flight. I read the flight logs and reviews prior to flying this, and for some reason, thought mine was going to work. It didn't. There is just too much stuff to cram into a BT-56 tube here. Others that witnessed the ballistic arc that our rocket did (when ejection charge failed to even get the nosecone out) said "that must have been a Cosmic Cobra". Tells you something. The suggestions we got were that this rocket needs to be "stretched". We concur. A longer body tube will allow for chute to be packed underneath the folded helicopter blades. Stay tuned in the mods section.

    G.P. (June 25, 2008)

    I'm not sure why some people are having trouble with this rocket - I've had good recovery every time. The trick is to fold and roll the parachute in a long wedge so that it fits inside the rotors. This was my mom's favorite of all my rockets - she loved watching the rotor/nose cone deploy and autogyro down.

    C.G. (July 2, 2008)

    As G.P. said, you need to fold the parachute rather flat and place it between the rotors. My daughter has one and has never had a bad deployment. However, the nose cone doesn't spin all that well in the default build; it starts to spin, then flips over, then starts to spin again, and so on. I resolved this by putting a few grams (probably around 15) of weight in the tip of the nosecone, enticing it to remain pointed downward for a more satisfying spin.

    Wallace Jones (July 27, 2011)

    Very first flight lifted off slowly after a longer than usual ignition delay. Nose cone separated at apogee, all fins deployed for a nice autogyro descent. Rocket body was not so fortunate. Parachute shroud lines were severed by the ejection blast (due to lack of wadding on my part). Rocket survived with just a small dimple in the tube. Parachute was never found. I plan to replace the lost chute with a streamer or small chute and use more wadding next time. I think the provided decal makes the rocket look gaudy. I would suggest leaving it off . My rotor blades were purple, which helped visibility during descent.  I like this rocket, no curse here (except for that hidious decal).

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