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Rocket-Powered 21-Foot Long X-Wing Actually Flies
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that some crazy California enthusiasts have built a 21-foot long model of an X-Wing. While this might be impressive in its own right, this model actually flies. Powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines the group has high hopes for their launch next week. Let's hope the built-in R2 unit makes it out ok.
The wings were for mounting weapons and maneuverability. There's no atmosphere to push on, but the engines are mounted such that it could turn pretty easily.
Plus it looks kinda neat.
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The actual quote is "R2, that stabilizer's broken loose again ..."
Except that we have seen them fly in an atmosphere (Yavin, Hoth, Dagobah, etc.). You could chalk that up to having sufficient thrust to overcoming the need for wings, but even if the wings weren't actually aerodynamic, they would still be affected by aerodynamic forces. Even a sheet of plywood can fly, just not far and not well.
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You guys need to turn in your fan club id cards and your back issues of Bantha Tracks.
The X-Wing doesn't "fly". It hovers. It uses the same hover/propulsion mechanism as a landspeeder or a speeder bike when it's in an atmosphere. It's like the USS Enterprise (any of them, CVN-56 included). It doesn't need to be aerodynamic to "fly". It needs to not burn up in the atmosphere when it's moving through it.
It's rather like the space shuttle actually...
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
No, wings and atmospheres are not needed for banked turns. Banking with wings and an atmosphere is helpful because it permits some lift to be redirected as centripetal force to make the turn. But banking with no atmosphere still makes sense to redirect centrifugal force to the pilot's feet, rather than sideways -- you can take a lot more g's that way and maintain reasonable function controlling the ship.
You are definitely right about the thrust, of course -- to make a constant speed turn in vacuum, thrust is radial. To make a _real_ dogfighting turn in vacuum, thrust would start forward of radial (reduce speed and initiate turn), sweep through radial, and finish aft of radial (get back to speed as you ease out of turn). Just like a race car, except here the acceleration limit is imposed by the pilot's physiology rather than the tyres' coefficient of friction.
Of course, in a vacuum, your engines would be off much of the time, allowing them to operate at substantial overload when needed for a turn, and cooling while you coast. But red flames look so _cool_, they just had to be included.
Orbital dynamics don't apply -- if you have a ship with sufficient thrust to do anything looking like a dogfight, you don't need orbits to stay up.
Porkin's last battle
Sorta-right, sorta-wrong. The wings are there because they're S-foils, a term which crops up mostly in the video games (most notably in X-Wing, where you had to press a button to open or close them for combat or hyperspace travel respectively). Since the wings were there, it made sense to mount the weaponry in a distributed setup.
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The X-Wing fighter will be launched (weather permitting) on Sat. October 6 at Plaster City, CA near El Centro. The rocket will be powered by 4 "M" class solid rocket motors. Each year Tripoli San Diego and DART rocket clubs hold their annual 4-day event called Plaster Blaster. This year it is titled Plaster Wars in honor of the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie. Andy Woerner of What's Up Hobbies usually builds a wild and outrageous project for the event. With this years theme, he decided to build the X-Wing fighter. Another group is bringing a 9-10' (estimated from the picture) Y-Wing fighter and other attendees are encouraged to bring other Star Wars inspired rockets. If you are in or near southern California and want to come see this, visit plasterblaster.com for information, directions and saftey notices. There is no cost to come and watch. If you would like to launch your own rockets (A-M class), there is a flyers fee to cover the cost of permits and porta-potties. Several vendors will also be on site for all of your rocket buying impulses. You must have a certification card to buy H class and above propellent kits. This is really a fun event for all ages and the price is right. Chances are good that local news teams will be on hand to cover the event. Tech: Getting all of the motors to light is one of Andy's specialties and I've never seen him fail in it. It could happen, but the chances are small. There is no guidance system on hobby rockets as it is against the law. The X-Wing will be launched a fair distance from the flight line for safety and announcements will be made well in advance of the launch so everybody will pay attention. I have never seen anybody injured at a rocket launch in over 5 years that I have been back in the hobby. It is very safe.