I managed to get the Super
Shuttle's flight bug finally licked!
I needed to add weight to
the pod's forward separator disk
to bring the launch C/G
forward. The flight before this one
was with twelve 3/4"
washers bolted to the disk. It went
straight up but the delay
was too long and it ejected at about
100 feet going down at about
30 degrees. The glider almost
recovered but landed without
damage.
Here's the flight from 9/4/2003:
Ignition of the D12-3 Cleared the rod and accelerating - 50 ft Starting slow barrel roll at about 150 ft
Continuing Roll Program
Burnout at about 250 ft
Coasting up to about 300 and
continuing roll to....
...wings level and..........................................................Orbiter Launch!
If you look closely at the
photo you'll see the two pieces of the starboard elevator
and the whole port elevator
stripped off due to an overzealous D12-3 ejection charge!
I had removed 6 of the 12
washers that I first tried (to move the C/G forward) but failed
to make sure they were tight
against the plate. They shifted slightly during boost
and jammed the orbiter on
the pod. The pressure ruptured the aft end of the orbiter
and stripped the elevators.
The next step is to build
and entirely new prototype from scratch and then work out
the uniformity problems
with the Orbiter cone production.