This model of a tactical, battlefield nuclear ballistic missile was originally offered by Estes in the mid 70's. The only way to get one now is either to find an old un-opened kit or to clone your own.
Recently, Ed Miller at Alien Enterprises ,began offering a fiberglass nose cone that duplicates the original cone that came with the Estes kit. I decided to clone the Pershing and use Alien's cone. Alien also offer a cast fiberglass fin set, however, I decided to make my own.
The kit's original fins were vaccu-form assembies. I made mine from balsa and ply. The upper fins are basic wedges made from aileron strip stock while the lower fins are built up from a balsa frame with 1/16" ply skin. I debated going with the original 24mm motor mount like the original had but opted instead for the 29mm mount after running some simulations using Rocksim. The original Estes design had the motor tube at least 3" inside the main body tube. In my version the motor nozzle is flush with the aft end of the body tube. Though the CP remained the same the CG moved forward about 2". Fortunately the heavy fiberglass nose cone negated the need to add nose weight. The only drawback is the entire modle itself weighs over a pound and cannot fly on D motors. For this one it will be F and above.
The body tube is basic BT-101 from Totally Tubular with a LOC 29mm motor/stuffer tube. The bulkheads are 1/8" ply and epoxied in place.Construction pretty much paralled the orginal Estes instructions (available on JimZ's web site) and decals were provided by Tom Prestia at Tango Papa. The completed model weighs in at 22 oz (the nose cone itself comes in at 16oz). I have only flown the model on an F24-4W so far. Performance was so-so and the delay was a bit too long. Future flights will be with F50 or F52 motors and hopefully better performance. Recovery is in two pieces with each coming down via a 24" nylon 'chute.
Model Specs.: length 41" , dia. 4", wt.: 22 oz |
