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TOGinator
Featured in the EMRR 2009 rockets calendar
Futuristic 7ft tall rocket
flown on large clusters of 20 to 30 engines 4
inch diameter body 18 inch wingspan
Flight
weight up to 15 pounds |
Page 1: build and flight 1 (April
2008)
Page 2: rebuild and flight 2 (Oct. 2008)
Page 3: flights
3-5 (2009-2010)
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TOGinator build and flight 1
4/19/08 CMASS Amesbury, MA
Click on any picture to enlarge |
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The build started as an upscale of the
FlisKits US TOG.
Then a couple canted 29mm engine tubes joined the central 38mm.
Then 23 more
smaller 24mm engine tubes.
The project came together from January to
May 2008.
Built with:
> 1/8" (outboard) and 1/4" (inboard) plywood fins
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LOC cardboard tubing (24mm, 29mm, 38mm, 54mm and 2.6")
> epoxy (Loctite 5 minute and West Systems 206 slow)
> plenty of fiberglass (13oz each side of upper fin, 7oz each side of the
two side fins, 4oz over tubes)
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Used multiple layers of Kilz primer, Bondo spot putty and
Krylon paint.
Upper body tube is 54mm. Rocket is just under 7ft tall. |
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Prepping the TOGinator with 26x D11-P engines for its
first flight on 4/19/08.
At 468 Ns, an I powered BP launch. Fully prepped rocket was 7.8 lbs. |
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My son Paul and I at the CMASS Amesbury field. Bob Krech and
Tony Vincent helping set up at the pad. |
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Series strings of 2 to 3 Rocketflite ML ematches
before and after installation into the engines. Series and parallel wiring
of ematches greatly reduced ignition current load to about 48A. Typical all
parallel igniter load would have been about 310A. Prototype Rocketflite MF ematches ignited all 26 engines and both
ejection charges. A great liftoff picture by Jim Flis, thanks also to
FlisKits for design inspiration. |
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Flight Video:
TOGinator complete flight (14MB)
Thanks to Frank Casey for the longer video.
Also includes my short video slowed down. |
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Liftoff was great, arrow straight with a quick start to 765ft, recovery was not.
Both ejection charges fired, but the main jammed and did not deploy. Thanks
to Dave Lindbergh for these pictures. |
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Check out the second flight of the TOGinator on
Page 2: rebuild and flight 2 - Oct. 2008
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