TOPIC: Aeromodeller magazine.

I do hope everyone will have a look at the latest, March 2021 issue, of Aeromodeller.

It has a great article from Roger on all the latest developments in reaction power.







Roger adds:

Paul Hoey is the first to make a T-38 from the free plan:





I wonder if he needs motors? I do hope so!

Roger Matthews has also made a T-38 from the AM plan, but with a difference:





Roger writes:
"The Talon T-38 jet as the plan took my fancy, not as a powered flyer but as a catapult glider. So after a search through the scrap box, (balsa is getting thin on the ground at the moment after a seven ( yes 7) model building series during lockdown) I came up with the model pictured below, note the catapult hook.
After a quick test in the garden and finding no balance ballast required, I drew some of the detail colour lines, grabbed a 12mm dia dowel and bands, and went for my daily walking exercise (cough cough) which happens to pass a suitable dog walking field and took some extra exercise launching and retrieving this little model. Pure fun in a stick!"

Roger also told me the cg is back 15mm from the plan and (unexpectedly) it has a floaty glide.

Here is his model data:
1) AUW 13g (Fuselage 3mm med/hard balsa, all tail surfaces 1.5 mm med/soft balsa, wings 3/32 med/hard balsa sanded to a very basic flat bottom airfoil section)
2) No added balance weight used
3) C of G is 15mm rearward of your suggested - this may be due to heavier balsa used in fin and tailplane surfaces?
4) Hook details ands position see picture below, CA'd into position
5) Incident angles and surface dihedral/anhedral angles as per plan
6) Catapult is currently a hard balsa dowel 12mm diameter with 5 smallish bands as propulsion
7) I tend to launch in various angles into/across headwind to achieve a maximum climbing turning height
Maximum current flights up to maybe 8-10 seconds".

Roger and I discussed adding a one shot motor, and given it is very light (13 grams, not 20-25 grams (it is undoped wood) I suggested a pack of old Rapier L-2 LTs as most suitable (these produce about 110 mN) as I have a few of these left.

And so we gather in folk ... perhaps I should have been a US televangelist? (ugh!)
:very chuffed!

Hi Guys,

please have a look at the latest AeroModeller (July 2022):





It includes several items of interest to rocketeers: my 'Rocketry Revivals II' and Rob Smith's rather tasty 'Jet Shinden' plan with versions for EDF and TSP L-2.








Above: just one of the illustrations from my definitive article about Jetex and Rapier/TSP flying!


Slowly, slowly, we gain recognition. Do buy a copy - it will encourage Andrew Boddington, AM's estimable editor to publish more about rocket flying.