Thursday 29 June 2017

Enerjet 1340/20, Part 2



In building my Enerjet 1340/20 replica, I largely followed the original design as shown in Enerjet's 1340/20 Sounding Rocket flyer of the 1970s. For example, I installed a 29 mm motor mount but concurrently also constructed a dedicated, removable 24 mm adapter for use with this rocket. A small deviation was made with regard to the parachute material; instead of the original two 12" silk parachutes, I used a hexagonal Rogue Aerospace PP-45 (45 cm diameter) nylon parachute and chose a combined recovery of airframe and payload section.

The most significant difference to the original 1340/20 rocket is the launch lug. Enerjet had fitted the rocket with wire loops for guidance during launch. While this likely made sense aerodynamically, I always felt unsatisfied when looking at the iconic 1970s photos prominently showing the #13 plastic fin unit's integrally moulded launch lug left without any purpose on the front side of the rocket. This was a design decision I didn't quite comprehend. I thus modified the top section of the moulded launch lug to hold a plywood stand-off, on which I later glued the lower of two conventional launch lugs. This worked flawlessly and left the front aspect of the rocket pleasantly uncluttered.

Epoxy adhesive was used throughout the construction of the rocket.

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