Estes Cosmic Explorer

Estes - Cosmic Explorer {Kit} (2421)

Contributed by Jonathan Burton

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Published: 2014-04-08
Diameter: 1.33 inches
Length: 24.00 inches
Manufacturer: Estes
Skill Level: 1
Style: Sport

Brief

A very nice, sturdy, solid, and pretty looking rocket. This kit is based off of the Centuri Centurion. Its skill level is 1, but it was a challenging build for me regardless. It was the first one that I had to sand, cut, and do specific detailing like fillets and proper fin alignment. This kit was made for performance since the components featured in it are a lot more sturdy and solid than the standard Estes rocket kit. This kit also features through-the-wall fin construction.

Components

It's components are as follows;

  • Two very sturdy and solid body tubes, with very thick walls
  • A classic nose cone
  • Thick balsa wood fins.
  • A very thick and very long rubber shock chord, longer than the rocket itself.
  • An 18" plastic red transparent parachute with very sturdy shroud lines
  • Water slide decals
  • Standard engine mount
  • Thick and sturdy thrust rings
  • Standard launch lugs.

Construction

This kit is outstanding, the instructions were very straight forward and easy to follow. 

Pros:

  • Solid parts which were easy to assemble
  • very clear and straight forward instructions
  • Not too much sanding and cutting of parts was required.


Cons: None

Finishing

Finishing the kit was the most challenging part to do since this is a sport kit and is made to look nice.

Construction Score: 4

Flight

Mine has not flown yet.

Recovery

Never flown.

Flight Rating:

Summary

To sum it all up, this is an outstanding kit and I would recommend it to any hobbyist looking to expand their fleet. The first issue I had with building this kit was that I had forgotten to prime the nose cone since it is balsa wood. So the paint turned out a bit flatter and sloppier on the nosecone. It is a bit more on the challenging side for a skill level 1 since the parts are a little higher in quality than most standard kits.  My second issue was that I had assembled the engine mount before aligning the fins to it, so I had to force the fins in a bit. I probably broke the balsa on the ends of the fins, but I still was able to get them glued in.

Overall Rating: 5

Flights

comment Post a Comment