Quest Space Shuttle Intrepid

Quest - Space Shuttle Intrepid {Kit} (4002)

Contributed by Bill Michaels

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstar_borderstar_border
Diameter: 1.58 inches
Manufacturer: Quest
Skill Level: 4
Style: Futuristic/Exotic, Glider

Brief:
Rocket releases small glider.

Construction:
Booster has large balsa wing-like fins with smaller fins on the wingtips. NC is plastic. Shock cord is the typical Quest Kevlar® string attached to the motor mount that transitions to an elastic cord. A 14 inch parachute is used.

Laser cutting on the fins is excellent. The parts are precisely cut and fit well. Instructions are thorough, clearly written, and well illustrated.

I modified my model--I added a baffle made of two offset disks of balsa to reduce the need for ejection wadding.

The wings are made up from four pieces on both the booster and the glider. Everything lines up and fits well. However, the fin design is weak. The large wing tip fins on the booster are fragile and are bound to hit first on landing. I broke two fins and knocked one off on the first flight even though the landing wasn't particularly hard.

I'd recommend not mounting the top wingtip fins at the 10 degree outward cant as shown in the instructions. (This is done purely for looks.) Instead, I'd mount them perpendicular to the main wing and then add a small piece of balsa to the outside as a stiffener. This piece would tie the upper and lower wing tip fins together and sandwich the end of the "wing" fin making it much harder to knock a tip fin off on landing.

The glider is small, about 6 inches long with a wingspan of 4.5 inches. The glider is very small and hard to test glide. As it turned out during the first flight, the glider was very nose heavy. I'd recommend reducing or eliminating the heavy body tube joiner used to attach the plastic nose cone to the body tube on the glider. That would take some weight out of the nose.

Finishing:
Kit recommends not finishing the glider for best flight performance, but includes complete painting instructions in case you want to paint it anyways. Models like this are built more for looks than absolute flight performance, so I painted mine. I primed the model with white Krylon primer then gave it a light coat of gloss white. I used acrylic dark gray for the underside of the glider and booster.

The waterslide decals worked well and went on easily. I used a Future floor polish as a setting agent and as a final gloss coat.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I flew the model on a B6-4. It boosted straight up with the large fin area. Model uses a standard metal retaining hook. No problems there.

Glider separated easily at apogee and dove sharply to the ground. It is so small and light that it suffered no damage.

Recovery:
I used one small piece of wadding as additional protection for the chute. The baffle worked well. The chute was unmarked by the ejection gases and deployed fully. Even so, the model lands hard on the fragile fins.

I'd recommend modifying the Kevlar® shock cord installation so the model lands in a more horizontal position,

Flight Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary:
This is a sharp looking rocket. Construction is a bit more involved than most due to the large balsa wings and fins. I think the design of the fins is the weak point as they are easy to break on landing.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • Quest Space Shuttle Intrepid By Andy Hobbs (August 9, 2010)

    Quest's new Shuttle Intrepid is a booster glider combination. The booster is based on a T40 tube. The glider rides "piggy back" on the top of the booster. At ejection the Booster deploys a 14" parachute and the glider is released into a slowly spiraling decent. Modifications: Minor assembly sequence changes and a relocated launch lug. The components consist of: 1)motor mount clip ...

Flights

Comments:

avatar
J.T.L. (April 2, 2004)
I recommend this kit if you are looking for a boost-glider. It is very enjoyable to fly! Definitely use the C6-3 over the B6-4. My experience with the construction of the kit was frustrating for two quality-control related reasons. First, when I opened the parts bag the parachute material was attached to the decal sheet. Peeling off the chute ruined the decals. Second, the die-cut balsa parts were more like "die-gauged" balsa parts. The balsa was fixed with some TLC & Fill-N-Finish. My fix to the decal problem was to make my own set. I added some NASA meatball logos to both the booster and glider to jazz them up a bit. I painted the glider yellow to make it easier to track the little thing and to remind me of the Centuri Space Shuttle.
avatar
C.E.D. (July 10, 2004)
Weird. I was reading an opinion of the SS Intrepid and realized I had the exact same problem: the parachute had fused itself against the decals, ruining both. Thanks to some communication with Bill Stine, he sent me replacement parts free of charge. Secondly, there is a least one extra balsa piece, which is not explained in the instructions. Also, the quality of my balsa in particular is a little "spongy", making it a burden to sand and shape. Other than that, the kit is a fun build.

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