Descon Little Joe II

Scratch - Little Joe II {Scratch}

Contributed by Jeff Brundt

Manufacturer: Scratch
(Contributed - by Jeff Brundt)
Little Joe II

Introduction and materials
A 1/50-scale version of the vehicle used to test the LES system for the Apollo spacecraft. The particular vehicle modeled is A-001, BP-12, flown on May 13, 1964. Each of the Little Joe rockets was slightly different in order to test various aspects of the LES system under different flight parameters. The model rocket is constructed using commercially available components. The service module section (SM) is a LOC 3î diameter body tube. The booster portion is LOC 3" coupler tubing sections. Bulkheads are 1/8" lite ply. The capsule and LES tower are constructed in the same fashion as on my Saturn 1b. The fins are made from 1 3/8" aileron balsa strip stock. The corrugated body wrap is vacu-formed and made by a good friend, Paul Graf. Paul used Evergreen scribed sheet styrene sized to fit the circumference of the coupler tubes for the master mold then vacu-formed them from .015" sheet styrene. He made the basic sections and I cut them to size (Paul also has some excellent body wraps for cloning the 1/70 scale Estes Saturn 1b if anyone is interested). The various conduit and tunnels are made from strip sheet styrene. The motor tubes are stock Estes BT-50 body tubes.

Construction
Construction was fairly easy and straightforward. The centering rings were hand cut from lite ply since there were none available in the motor configuration or diameter required. I built the capsule and LES tower first because I had experience from the S1b. I added a little more epoxy to the cone tip for nose weight to keep the CG where it needed to be based on the RockSim calculations. The vacu-form wraps were applied using 3M77 spray adhesive and the conduits were applied using CA. I used the pattern sheet from the Estes 1/100 LJII (after correctly sizing on the copier) for making the tunnels/conduits and to mark the fin locations. The fins were epoxied in place and given a light coat of finishing resin to add strength and help seal the grain. Launch lugs were made from 3/16" I.D. aluminum tubing. The ëUNITED STATES' marking were made by myself on a Xerox machine. The ink on the Microscale decal paper is easily scratched off so I sprayed the printed decals with a clear fixative. This sealed the ink and caused no problem during application.

Finishing and recovery system
The only parts requiring sealing prior to paint were the fins and fiberglassed capsule. The booster was painted using Krylon's silver. The SM body tube was finished using white monokote trim sheet wrapped around the body tube. The capsule and LES tower were painted with Krylon gloss white. The black roll pattern markings were made from trim monokote and applied using the patterns found in the Estes kit. Since there is not much room in the body tube for the shock cord, parachute and wadding I opted to use Pratt Hobbies Nomex® protector and do away with the need for recovery wadding. The 4" square Nomex® cloth slips over the Pratt Hobbies Kevlar® cord loop tied to a screw eye in the bulkhead and takes up almost no room. The parachute is 24" ripstop nylon and the shock cord is a 3 yard length of 1/2" ribbed elastic.

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Little Joe next to same scale Saturn 1 for size comparison

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Little Joe II

PicFlying
The model flies on (2) 24mm motors. Modeling on RockSim and AltiCalc showed the Estes D12-5 to be the motor of choice for clustering. I have had good success with clustering Estes D engines. Altitude prediction with RockSim and AltiCalc showed max altitude around 630' which was pretty good for a rocket of this size. I could have went with a single 24mm mount but that would have entailed using composite motors only since the drag is rather large even though the weight is not that much. I used Estes long motor hooks for motor retention. This requires the use of a spacer in each motor tube but I was using what parts I had on hand in my spare parts boxes. This also let me off from filing the end of the hook down in case I wanted to use 24mm RMS casings in the future. The all up weight, ready to fly (less motors) is 10oz. That just a bit less than the predicted 11oz I found when I modeled it on RockSim.

PicThe day of first flight was nice but a bit on the windy side. I decided to fly anyway. I loaded and prepped the two motors and installed the recovery system. The rocket slid easily on the 3/16" rod and I hooked up the igniter clips. The count proceeded to zero, both motors lit and the rocket leapt of the pad. The boost was straight despite the wind. The rocket reached apogee and the ejection went off and the recovery system deployed perfectly. The rocket descended slowly under the 24" ëchute. I had contemplated using a separate ëchute for the capsule but decided that the weight of it did not warrant that. Plus the tower was made of brass tubing and fairly robust. Recovery was perfect with no damage. Subsequent flights have been repeat performances. The D12-5 is the perfect motor cluster for this rocket. I have not tried a composite cluster yet but I am sure (2) E18-7's would give out of sight flights.

Summary
This was a fun rocket to build plus it is a companion to my S1b and in the same scale. It is interesting to put them side by side for a size comparison. Probably the most time consuming part was building the LES tower. I still feel soldered brass is the way to go for durability. Other than that there were no difficult or complicated areas to work on. I received many nice compliments on the LJII since there are not to many around at launches. The flight profile is perfect too. The D12-5's are the perfect motor choice. This one is definitely a keeper.

Model Stats:

Length: 21.75"
Dia.: 3.1"
Wt.: 10 oz
Motor config.: Dual 24mm cluster
Recovery: 24" rip stop nylon parachute

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