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Redstone Arsenal Photo of Honest John

The Estes Honest John kit I had as kid (ca 1969) was one of my favorite models. So much so I never flew it. As so I thought I give a try to make another one for HPR.

The picture on the right shows the finished version (actually I finished it twice after an unfortunate accident on the first launch attempt this year. Will fly in Spring 2007 I hope.

My Scratchbuilt Version

Honest John in flight on a Loki J-528.

May 12, 2007 at Geneseo NY.

The fins are fabricated with a 1/8” plywood core with foam on each side cut with a hotwire to get the diamond profile of the HJ original fins. A layer of 4oz fiberglass topped with light filler finishes the laminate.

The mount mount tube is 75mm.

Here is a close-up of fin tip edge showing fin profile.

Here is the fin can installed in the airframe tube. Epoxy fillets made with Mr. Fiberglass epoxy filled with equal parts of West Systems Cab-o-sil and fairing compound for easier sanding.

The nosecone and transition will be made in one piece. An airframe tube is inserted into a section of foam which will be cut as the transition section. Here the top is shown with a bulk head glued into the end and a U-bolt installed. This U-bolt will serve as the nosecone attachment point.

Here is the complete rough foam buildup of the soon-to-be nosecone-transition section. The total length of this section is 40”. 18” of this will be airframe where the recovery components will be stored.

The recovery will function by ducting the apogee charge to the top of this section which will pressurize the compartment from the top separating the sections.

The reefed parachute will be exposed and attached to the top of the bottom section. A Defy Gravity Tether will be used to release the parachute reef at main deployment altitude.

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