1/16 Scale Saturn V

Click [HERE!] for flight details!

This is not an RTV project, but an Arizona Rocketry Team project that Brad is participating on. Ken Sparks is leading the project -- Brad's contributions are pretty minor compared to the work that Ken has put into it.

Brad has been involved in working out the design details, advising on composites, and helping with the glassing of the lower stages. He also has sole responsibility for the construction of the Apollo Command Module and escape tower and the F1 rocket motors' nozzle bells.

1/16 scale means this bird will stand 23 feet tall and measure 30 inches across at the base. The first stage will be powered by a central M motor surrounded by four K motors, stage two will hold four J motors, and the third stage will continue on under the thrust of a single J motor. Liftoff weight will be somewhere around 300 pounds, and estimated altitude is around 3000 feet. This beast was originally to fly at Plaster Blaster 2005 on October 2nd 2005, flying off against the Soviet moon rocket, the N1 being built by a team from San Diego and DART. The N1 flew beautifully, but the Saturn V launch was scrubbed due to electronics problems that showed up in the last hours before the launch. It's now slated to fly at the Arizona Rocket Gathering (ARG) February 25-26 2006.

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All the transitions began with a paper frustum template. Click [HERE!] to open the Transition Calculater used to make the templates.	The paper forms were reinforced with fiberglass. The coupler is made from a 10-inch Sonotube with the diameter reduced to precise size.
I shaped the nose cone of the escape tower out of basswood on a wood lathe	The 38mm motor tube in the tower is the only part I didn't make from scratch.
The capsule is covered with Monocote and filled with lead. It weighs 35 lbs.	The lattice is costructed from hardwood dowels. This was by far the most difficult part of the assembly.
The nozzles are paper, plasticized with polyester resin.	Another view of the escape tower details.

I shaped the protective shroud over the capsule. Cardboard details were overlayed prior to painting.

If you are so inclined... I have created a PDF file that has all the paper patterns for the shrouds, nozzles, cones, tubes, everything! Just print them out and for the price of a dozen sheets of 8.5x11 paper (or card stock) you can make your own 10-inch Command Module! Click [HERE!] to download the posterboard templates!

While I was busy putzing with paper and tinker-toys, the real manly build was happening in Ken Spark's garage. Jay & Jacob Dennis, Mike Stoops, Larry Foster, and Guy Smith all lent a hand in one form or another.

Ken posing with the 2nd stage. The first two stages are both built like a dumbbell, with foam separating motor mounts from the parachute bay/interstage section.	This is what the second stage looks like with the foam installed. This is also fully fiberglassed (Brad helped Ken glass this stage, but has no picture to prove it.)
Ken working on the 2nd stage motor mount.	This is how they cut the foam for the midsection.
The end sections are made from 24-inch concrete forms. This is the first stage motor mount. The motor tubes were later reinforced with carbon fiber.	The end sections are filled with expanding foam. Or overfilled, in this case. The vertical dowels here mate up with recieving tubes in the upper stage.
Stacking the components of the first stage. Notice the central tube, the PVC launch lug, and the threaded rod. The rod will anchor the parachutes.	This stage is nine feet tall. The motor mounts are pointed up; the bell-shaped nozzles will cover those when installed.
The next step is to move the stage to the horizontal fixture.	The stage can be rotated while the fiberglass and resin are applied
And then the fun starts, with everyone up to their elbows in epoxy. Jay, Jacob and Guy were wetting the airframe. Ken was directing and Roy was mixing the resin.

I talked Ken into using paper frustums instead of trying to cut them from foam. Overall, they worked pretty well. Click [HERE!] to refer to the computational tool used to create the paper pattern. The aft frustum will stay attached and provide stabilization instead of installing fins.

We did a quick check to see what the Command Module looked like atop the Service Module. despite the look of extreme skepticism you see here, the two sections mated up just fine.

Roy and Guy are setting screws into the first stage that will fasten the fin brackets to the body. It isn't often that you
use a hammer in rocket construction, but this wasn't staged - the screw anchors were (lightly) tapped into place.

At the last minute, Ken realized that the individual he had lined up to make the five nozzle bells at the base of the Saturn V would be unable to complete them in time. So two weeeks before liftoff he asked me if I could step up, and this is what I made. I used the nose cone mold described [HERE!] to form the bells since I didn't have time to create a new plug and molds. They aren't scale reproductions, but they are better than nothing

It looks even better with some paint. Larry and Ken are shown lifting the third stage into position. If you think this is big...

...this is only about half of the total rocket. The first stage and command module are still in the garage.

At the launch site, during the full system electronics check we discovered that the commercial electronics were not communicating with ours. This presented a problem that we spent most of the day trying to correct. Unfortunately at T - 14 hours a decision was made to scrub the launch. This was the most difficult decision that Ken has made, but the entire team was in agreement. We could not guarantee that the Saturn V could be safely launched, and there was a zero percent margin regarding team member and spectator safety !

After talking with the full team and going over other projects that each of us have going, it has been determined that the next available launch window will be at the Arizona Rocket Gathering held in Rainbow Valley, Arizona on February 25 - 26, 2005. Check out the Arizona High Power Rocketry Association website at www.ahpra.org for information regarding ARG!

Click [HERE!] to see the Arizona Rocketry Team website featuring more construction details construction of the 1/16 scale Saturn V!

Click [HERE!] for flight details of the 02/25/06 launch!