Bee Fly 13mm Model Rocket by Nautilus Aerospace
Description
Update: I have successfully tested this model using an Estes A10-3T motor. it flew straight up to what felt like 700-1000', ejected the motor casing and buried itself in the soft ground completely unscathed around 200' away. I heard it hit the ground next to me but it still took me around 2 1/2 hours to find in the tall meadow grass. The Bee Fly is my second foray into 3D printable model rockets designed around Estes T (Tiny) series of 13mm x 45mm rocket motors in the 1/4A, 1/2A and A impulse classes which utilizes a Haack-series nose cone and fins for improved aerodynamics. It is similar in shape, size and performance to their Mosquito (1345), Quark (0802) and Swift (220) offerings albeit it is heavier--about 9-10g. Theoretically the rocket is recoverable but the prototype I printed landed an enormous distance (about 1000') from the launch site and was lost for some time. It took days of searching over the course of a month or two in tall meadow grass to eventually find its battered corpse. It had clearly hit a rock at a pretty high speed which obliterated the nose and broke a couple fins. Also worth noting is that rocket motors get hot enough that they will in all likeliness shrink the plastic around them if not quickly ejected from the rocket before the heat is absorbed into the body. This might fuse the motor casing to the body with the same ferocity that the plastic might adhere to your printer bed making it very difficult to remove or replace. The prototype didn't have launch lugs and traveled on a shallow arc hitting the ground at full speed. This released version of the model has a pair of streamlined launch lugs which greatly improves its stability early in the flight on a 1/8" (3.5mm) launch rod. This revised version I'm publishing today also has a thicker shell on the nose cone and should therefore be much more resilient against an impact with the ground--but maybe not rocks. Similar rockets I'm working on--and one that's already published here on Thingiverse--can take a veritable beating so this one should be able to as well. I am not claiming it WILL survive even one whole flight ... but if you successfully recover it in-tact and are able to relaunch--as in fresh motors still fit--let me know. Once I've tested this revision I will update the posting to reflect that. In the meantime I'll be working on newer rocket system which will hopefully be more recoverable The knife-edge fins on this rocket are still as fragile as the prototype version but if further tests of this design reveal that it cannot survive a tumble-style recovery after a flight in a high arch from a proper launching pad I will update the design with thicker fins and upload it here. This rocket shaped enough like a bullet slug (or a lawn dart for that matter) to perform like one so heed this warning: aim away from face, use eye protection and I am not liable if you injure yourself misusing this device, or if you are not using the proper precautions for model rocket flight, or if you disobey your local laws, age requirements or federal aviation regulations. I'm uploading two versions of this model to Thingiverse: one has supports built into the model. This is because Cura's default settings prevent the support structures from properly interfacing to the fins so they won't print properly if at all. The support structures I designed aren't perfect--I wouldn't try to "snap" them off--instead use the flush cuts that came with your printer to separate the support from the fins. Then you can carefully try to snap the central support from the rocket body. If you are competent with your slicer software there is an unsupported version of this model so you can configure your own support structures. As I understand it Cura ignores overhang areas of less than 1.6mm so you'll need to do some tinkering to get it to print the fins correctly. If you just want to go straight to printing use the model with the build-in supports instead. I'd recommend Cura's default brim setting of 8mm with a 0.2mm layer higher. Estes is a registered trademark of Estes Industries, LLC of Penrose, Colorado, USA.
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