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A buddy of mine just finished up his build of an X-15 kit that I made over the last couple of weeks. I found lots of scale dimensions and other information in these forums that I used to make the kits so, as thanks, I wanted to post pics here. I made more or less two variants (obviously these flew with some mixing and matching of experimental components) -
Anyway, of course my buddy wanted to try this with the external drop tanks. If you have launched model rockets, you may anticipate that these tanks make the rocket inherently less stable (move center of pressure forward about 3cm it turns out according to simulation programs). Anyway, nothing that a little nose weight and extra thrust cannot solve. Here is his finished model (he obviously continued his rebelliousness by doing the ablative coating version):
Here is his launch with the tanks(windcocked a bit but overall very good flight):
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y35_QPtjQ2w
Later he drag raced another X-15 (1st off pad wins):
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-dw0-O9uKI
Rematch:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3WBTAvWDQc
- X-15A-2 XLR-99 w/ 1x 29mm engine (w/ extended fairings, helium ball tank, and short ventral fin)
- X-15 XLR-11 w/ 2x 24mm cluster (w/ tall ventral fin and a shroud cap for display)
Anyway, of course my buddy wanted to try this with the external drop tanks. If you have launched model rockets, you may anticipate that these tanks make the rocket inherently less stable (move center of pressure forward about 3cm it turns out according to simulation programs). Anyway, nothing that a little nose weight and extra thrust cannot solve. Here is his finished model (he obviously continued his rebelliousness by doing the ablative coating version):
Here is his launch with the tanks(windcocked a bit but overall very good flight):
Later he drag raced another X-15 (1st off pad wins):
Rematch:
