Little Joe-II Pages |
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Little Joe-II Pages |
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| Little Joe-II at JSC - Houston, Texas  George (far right) with Little Joe-II and launcher at JSC, during NARAM-21 (1979) Rick Gaff photo - Mark Bundick in foreground.
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| NARAM-32 Sport Scale - 1990 A-004 1/39.5 Scale Near Dallas, Texas Southern Comfort Team - 1st place The Regional model had worked out nicely, winning the regionals it was flown in at Alabama contests. The experience from building the Regional Model helped a lot in building the NARAM model. Also, more information from Tom Beach was helping fill in a lot of holes that I did not know when the Regional model was built. But ironically, the information from Tom was not really all put togther until long after the NARAM model was built. At NARAM-32, the model scored well in Static judging, in first place. When it flew, it flew nicely. There was a "surprise" carried inside of it, a hidden Command Module with three chutes, for mission points. Unfortunately, the CM caught a thermal and flew away! The NARAM model was recovered fine, and went on to fly more NARAMs and even three WSMC's. |  |
The photo at left and right was taken by Bob Alway. The photo as printed at right, with caption.,was featured in Peter Alway's first scale book in 1990: It was later also included in Peter Alway's |  |
 Static Judging (Bob Alway photo) |  Loading onto Pad, with Wayne Hendricks (Bob Alway photo) |  2007 update - New internal CM for Mission Points, replacing original CM lost in 1990 |
| NARAM-33 Peanut Sport Scale - 1991 A-002 1/100 Scale Near Chicago, Illinois Southern Comfort Team - 2nd place For info on how this model was built, see the second part of the construction series further down this page. The model was built at 1/100 scale, as the Centuri and Estes kits were. This one was for A-002, perhaps he first time anyone had modeled A-002 for a NARAM (or any meet?). I used more advanced fabrication methods for that model than I had for the previous ones. Especially regarding Alumilite cast parts and RTV molds. The Peanut model suffered a bit due to its tiny size. The UNITED STATES lettering was done by clear decal, and the clear decal film was visible, so that hurt the score somewhat. It took Second Place in Team Division, to Team Neutron's Tiny Saturn-IB (Jay Marsh and Ed LaCroix), We would merge teams later to create the Southern Neutron Team. | 
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|  American Spacemodeling issues,with Peanut and Quest models  Removeable Base plate, slight burn damage. |
| NARAM-34 Super Scale - 1992 Las Vegas, NV (dry lakebed site) Southern Neutron Team - 1st place This was quite a challenge, to build a Scale Pad to go with the 1990 NARAM Little Joe-II. It never would have been possible without Tom Beach providing drawings he had drawn up for a model he also planned to build, but did not. A functional concern was how to keep the pad from being damaged by the engine exhaust. This was solved by designing the Scale Pad's base so it would be raised off of the ground, with a hole thru the center. To further protect the pad, a BT-70 tube was rigged up to be attached to the base of the E15 engine, and ride up with the model for about 16 inchs, then come to a stop due to a stop ring at the bottom fo the BT-70. The Little Joe Pad was bult from yellow .04" styrene, white .04" styrene, Plastruct I Beams, H Beams and L Angles, and some other plastic parts including Evergreen styrene tubing. In the midldle and far right photos, the partially completed pad can be seen , sitting on top of the elevated launching platform. |  Boilerplate Test |  |
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| The launcher actually had more time put into it than the NARAM model had. It dragged on so much that I had to finish off making some RTV molds so I could take Alumilite with me and cast parts at NARAM (parts for the wheel assemblies, and halve for each wheel). I spent Saturday night at NARAM casting the parts, gluing some of them, then painting them Sunday and completing the pad in time for turn-in Sunday night. It turned out that there were NO other entries in Team Division, and only three in C Div. So there was a combined 4 entries for C and Team Division. The Little Joe was easily in first place, and flew very well, nailing first place. Ironically the only hing that did not go right is the BT-70 tubing did not ride up with the modle as it had i na test flght, but the pad was OK, and Tom Beach would not have gottne such a nice launch photo. The Little Joe-II helped our Southern Neutron Team, flying our first season together, to win the National Championship in Team Division. |  Medium Resolution image |  High resolution image |  Photo by Tom Beach (Medium Res.) |
 Southern Neutron Team: Wayne Hendricks, Ed LaCroix, George Gassaway, & Jay Marsh |  Photo by Tom Beach (High Res.) |  Photo by Tom Beach |  Photo by Tom Beach |
| NARAM-37 Sport Scale - 1995 Rochester, NY Southern Neutron Team - 1st place Yet again the NARAM Joe came through and won Team Div. The most notable thing was finally meeting Tom Campbell, who had been building his own model, pretty much the first serious model anyone had built using the 1991 Data Tom Beach ahd I had created. Tom Campbell's bird was incredible. Best - Joe - Ever! Flown on a G40, Tom's bird easily flew to first place in C Division. |  George with Jay Marsh |  Tom Campbell and his model |
| NARAM-38 Sport Scale - 1996 Evansville, Indiana Southern Neutron Team - 1st place Yet again the NARAM Joe came through. It was one of the even wins at NARAM that year that helepd us to nail down another Team Championship for SouthernNeutron. It was mothballed and not flown again until NARAM-48 in 2006 |
(no photo available) |
| NARAM-48 Scale - 2006 Near Phoenix, Arizona Southern Neutron Team - 4th place The 1990 NARAM model was flown once again, 10 years after it last flew (1996 WSMC and NARAM-38). It ony came in 4th, for a few reasons. It had not been built to be measured for Scale, the orginal BPC/LES had been destroyed due to a shock cord tying error in 1992, plus wear and tear of being an old workhorse model. Also, the other builders uppped their game too. |  NARAM-48 (2006) Rick Gaff Photo |  Launch on E15-4 Rick Gaff Photo |
| WSMC's The Little Joe-II was also flown at three WSMC's, in the FAI S7 Scale event. It was not good enough to ever crack the top ten ,indeed it was usually near the back of he scoring, since it had been built for Sport Scale to begin with, and it is a whole extra step-up from being a NARAM contender to an FAI Medal contender such as Bob Biedron. At one time I had started some upgrade parts with the plan to build a new Little Joe for the 1992 WSMC, but it never got too far. The main reasons the Little Joe-II was flown was to help make the third spot on the U.S. S7 Scale Team, otherwise there might not have even been a third person (or a person less qualified). Plus I was going anyway, flying at least another event or two. It did pay off in 1992, the WSMC held in Melbourne, Florida. The U.S. S7 Team took second place as a team (and Bob Biedron winning a Gold Medal with his Ariane). My Little Joe and Jay Marsh's Saturn-IB helped to add to the team score enough for the team to take second that year. Unfortunately, that was the last time a US S7 Senior team had all three entries to make qualified flights. However the U.S. Junior Team did do that in 2002, to taking the Team Bronze. The Little Joe-II was also flown in S7 at the 1994 WSMC in Poland, and at the 1996 WSMC in Slovenia. |
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| 7" Diameter 1/22 Sport Model - 1991 In 1991, I wanted to build a 7" Diameter 1/22 model just for sport flying, not contests. A boilerplate was built out of poster paper. It flew on a G25 and six C6's. It also happened to be my HPR Level 1 Cert flight, in those days a person certified on a G. I regret that I do not have a photo of the actual model, before it crashed. It was made up from .02" styrene plastic for the body, and also for the Capsule. It was a very lightweight way to build a model like that. It weighed about 1.5 pounds, plus 4 ounces of noseweight added to the Escape Rocket. Detailing was sacrificed, even the corrugations were just crudely scribed into the skin. I had intended to fly it eventually on an H45, and six D12's, but never got that chance. It did make a great flight at NARAM-43 in 1991. That fall, I flew it in Huntsville at HARA's Rocket City Classic. Unfortunately the G25 did not light, but the six C6's had enough power (like a 60 N-sec F36) to carry it up 100 feet or more, then it fell to the ground and was smashed. I still have the main Joe body, but do not know if I ever will rebuild it. Ironically I had intended to add R/C ejection to that model later on, that would have saved it. |  Posterboard Boilerplate Photo by Vince Huegele |  The aftermath of the core G25 failing to ignite |  2008 photo comparing the 1/22 model with Micro Maxx and 1/100 Models |
| Centuri 1/45 Little Joe-II Tests - (1989 or so) I modified my old 1/45 model ,which was in bad shape, to try out a couple of things. For one, I replaced the original engine mount with one for 7 engines. A 24mm engine in the center, and six 18mm engines. I did not test it on 7 engines though, I only got around to doing a test with three, a D12 and two C6's. The other test was for "abort staging". I modified the BPC cone to hold an engine mount in the base of it, plus a system to deploy a parachute to recover it. And added a mercury switch system into a 1" long ejectable piston that fit in the upper part of the SM, just under the BPC cone, to both house the electronics and to keep the recovery system of the Main Body from being roasted by the A3 engine inside the BPC. It flew and worked out just great. Later I did a similar BPC Abort test with a 4" model, and C6 engine in the base of the BPC. It worked, but I decided not to pursue it for the Contest models due to the reliability risks. |  George and Wayne Hendricks |  Ready for flight at a HARA launch |
| As seen at right, staring at upper loft, clockwise: Raw Vac-form for 1/100 Peanut Cone, Raw Vac-form for 1/39.5 Cone, partly trimmed 1/39.5 Cone with cast Hard BPC, and a 1/39.5 Fin Root Fairing vac-formed from .04" Yellow plastic. Wayne Hendricks vac-formed all of the 1/39.5 cones, usually from .04" plastic. The cast "Hard BPC" was meant to glove-fit over a vac-formed cone. The casting included the fairings for the Tower legs and he beginnings of holes for the 3/32" legs. They needed a bit of drilling by hand afterwards. |  |
| In the photo at right, top row, the Tower Assembly Jig, Partially assembled Tower Side, Cast Hard BPC with one Tower side stuck into it, and partially built 4-sided tower. The tower was built up form 3/32" styrene tubing and 1/16" styrene rod. Glued by use of a jig and liquid cement. At lower left, two untrimmed "X" shape braces. At the lower right is a cast Tower Skirt. It was cast with four metal pins to help to anchor the tower skirt to the 3/32" LES tower legs. The LES legs were hollow, so the pins could be glued in (Plastic glues do not work with casting Resin). When the Skirt was cast, the metal pins had heads sticking into the resin area, so that the pins would be truly anchored. Simple straight pins would have easily slipped out. The pins also were scraped up a bit, and a slight hook bent into the end (not shown), otherwise smooth straight pins could have slipped out from inside a tower leg despite the glue. Unfortunately, I did not end up making any new models to make use of the cast parts like the Hard BPC and Tower Skirt. I had intended to do so for the 1992 WSMC, but was so burned out after doing the Pad for NARAM-34, I did not get actual construction of a new model started. |  |
| At right, a close-up of an X-brace. It was built up from four pieces of 1/16" rod. First step was to cut two pieces of 1/16" rod to the correct angle for a "V", then used a printed pattern as a guide for gluing them to the correct "V" angle, using liquid cement. I glued up many sets and let them dry. Then, I would take one V set, and trim the point off at about half-way along the V joint. And repeated with another V set. I them put both sets into a special jig I had made up to hold them at the correct inwards angle, and glued them. |  |
| At right, a drawing of the Tower Jig (at 1/19.75 scale, for printing at 50%). Below that is a photo of the real jig. To the left of the jig is a two-leg tower side assembly. To the right of the jig, a partially assembled four-sided Tower. As described earlier, the printed pattern was glued to a plastic sheet. Pieces of Plastruct "U" Channel (dark gray in the photo) were glued into place as jig guides. The tower legs, cut oversized, were taped in place. The horizontal struts were cut to length and glued in using Liquid Cement. A printed pattern helped in determining the length to cut the horizontal struts, an also for the 45 degree braces which were glued in later. The last step was cutting out and gluing in the diameter brace, not seen in the photo at right. Once one of the 2-leg assemblies was done, it was removed and a second two-leg assembly made in the same manner. When fully dry, then both sets of assemblies were placed into the jig, on their sides, set at 90 degrees, and taped in place so that the third of four sides could be built. I found it useful to use Tweezers to put the parts into place. Once that was dried enough o be structurally sound , the tape was removed and the tower rotated 80 degrees so that the 4th side could be built. Once the fourth side was done and dried, it was removed from the jig. Then I trimmed the "X" braces to the correct angles and lengths (using a printed pattern guide) and glued an X brace in, one at a time. After they were all done, I applied some extra coats of liquid cement to the joints, to help build them up. Care was needed since the liquid cement could also soften the joints and make them let go. To get a nice build-up of plastic at the joints, to help fill in any crevices, I used a near-empty bottle of liquid cement to put some scraps of plastic into, so the plastic would dissolve, so that could be brushed on as a sort of liquid filler. It was still more liquid cement than plastic. |   |
| At right is the NARAM model's BPC/LES, as seen at NARAM-34 (Tom Beach photo). The BPC Splice joints were simulated with a thick type of white decal material, cut into strips (Sig had some thick solid color decal sheet, I do not know the current status). The white decal strips simulating the BPC splices were applied before painting. The scimitar antennas were cut from styrene plastic. By the time this model had been built in 1990, there was still lot of data to compile, so there was some detailing that either I did not know of at the time, or I did not go quite into that detail on this model. The LES nozzles were vac-formed. The black roll pattern markings on the BPC and SM were not painted. They were cut out from solid black decal material. A rollout pattern was drawn up for the BPC, with the markings drawn into it. Then a printout of the pattern was glued to .04" plastic, and the .04" plastic cut out to act as cutting patterns. The plastic cutting patterns were placed onto the black decal film and cut out by hand. |  |
| The same method was done for the Service Module roll patterns, cutting guides made up and cut from black decal. The round dots on the SM were rub-on circles that Wayne Hendricks had found. Those worked out great. The silver area on the SM was cut from silver decal. The gold dots for the SM were punched from gold decal (brass tubing ground to a beveled edge all around). The Thruster Quads were cast resin, before I knew of Alumilite. The 16 thrusters were individually vac-formed. If I make another Little Joe A-004, those thrusters will be cast. |  |
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