There is a great photo of Simon's foam board Shuttle Orbiter STS on page 31 of the new MAAC magazine.
Three Tim's coffee cups flying in formation have never looked so good. Simon used 3 Tim's coffee cups painted black as the thrusters.
I remember it was a tough flight for Simon to get it trimmed correctly. The photo clearly shows a significant amount of right rudder deflection in straight and level flight.
It was a great moment at TEMAC to see it fly...pre-Covid.
Frank
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Gosh, it's in the National magazine! Thanks so much Adam - lovely comments and article. :)
I vividly remember the build process, it was so much fun and I'm so proud of how it turned out. It was built completely from a little 3-view plan drawing and then photos. But Boy was it a bugger to fly! Frank is correct, it needed sooooo much rudder to maintain level flight, and it hated turning with aileron/roll. Every flight was literally heart in mouth - I don't think I ever managed a landing on the actual field, always in the beans.
I didn't need boosters to launch - only Frank is qualified! ;D
I'd love to fly it again this year, and hopefully get it a little more sorted. I'm tempted to build a smaller, balsa EDF version from scratch.....maybe next winter?