Quest Micro Maxx - NASA Blackbird

Quest - NASA Blackbird {Kit}

Contributed by John Lee

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Manufacturer: Quest
Quest NASA Blackbird MMX

Brief:
Micromaxx, ready to fly, semi-scale of SR-71.

Construction:
The only component to this rocket is the rocket itself. It comes ready to fly.

Finishing:
No finishing is needed either.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Having had many problems with trying to get MMX motors ignited in the past, I tried a different approach that I have had some success with. Instead of using the provided MMX igniter, I used a skinny Estes Solar igniter. That meant that instead of ruing half a dozen MMX igniters without effect, the motor ignited on the first try. It ignited on the first try.

These Quest MMX rockets have a reputation for not flying very high due to their weight. For that reason, I was very surprised when this little plastic brick took right off and got to well over 100 feet. That was even better than with the earlier flight with an MMX Shuttle Orbiter. At that point the ejection charge popped out the streamer and the little orbiter came down safely. It recovered without any damage at all.

Pressing RSO duties prevented any further flights of this rocket today.

PROs: ready to fly, kind of cute, flies well, good for small areas.

CONs: difficult to find in grass.

Recovery:
The built-in streamer worked well but was not really needed. This one would have worked well and recovered fine as just a nose-blow rocket.

PROs: small enough not to be damaged if there is a failure in deployment.

CONs: hard to track int the sun.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This rocket performed better than I had expected. I think Micromaxx can be an acquired taste, but they do seem to have quite a following. They are useful in small areas and can be interesting in a "that's different" sort of way. If a person is going to try and get into MMX, starting with ready to fly rockets like this one allows you to find and explore GSE options that work as opposed to the Quest original.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Flights

Comments:

avatar
D.K.B. (November 12, 2009)
Ours didn't fly so straight. More like it had a pilot in it steering it around. The nose cone blew off at ejection and we never found it or the streamer. the rest is fine, so I guess we will have to make a little replacement for the nose cone. The launch system works pretty well once you learn to push them down far enough to get the wire far enough up inside. It's pretty easy set up to use other than that. Nice for small areas. Students like to see it in a range of motors from MMX up to larger RMS motors. Quite a difference.

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