All Rocketry Blogs

Rocket Dungeon: CP, CG and Thrust/Weight, oh my (2015-11-17)

I have made no building process but I did put in a 'chute and did another quick look at weight and CG issues. The weight as it stands is 23oz w/o motors. This is three ounces over my rough guess and ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Really bizarre, humongous plane (update) (2009-02-20)

(via leenks.com ) Tagged as an ekranoplan, but that's not what it is. Left it tagged that way anyway. I should have known this would be featured on Dark Roasted Blend - Monstrous Aviation: World's ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Another compendium of Ekranoplans (2009-06-04)

Dark Roasted Blend has another lengthy post on Ekranoplans , from the humongous ones that first caught my eye to personal versions. Here's a chart depicting various versions (image via "Science ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Soviet Megaplane v. Nazi UFO (concept art) (2009-11-09)

As seen on IO9 .  The megaplane is based on the Kalinin K-7, which I have previously posted about (note *).  As for the Nazi UFO , I refer you to Google. * Yes, I still realize that this ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Ekranoplan "Lun" up close (2010-03-11)

Igor113 has a lot of up-close photos of the ekranoplan Lun . As found on Dark Roasted Blend . (Click the attached label to see my other posts on these huge ground effect aircraft.) [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Archived Goodness (1) from Dark Roasted Blend (2011-05-31)

Dark Roasted Blend just posted what promises to be the first installment in a series of looks back into their extensive archives.  From hedgehogs to Ekranoplans and lot more, Archived ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Experimental Beriev Ekranoplan (2012-01-31)

Experimental Beriev Ekranoplan , a photo by amphalon on Flickr. [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Links roundup (2012-07-16)

BAfacts Archive , Bad Astronomy (Plait) Press Kit for the Mars Science Laboratory landing , NASA JPL, July 1012 (.pdf file) August 5th is the big day. U.S. Rocket Academy Gives XCOR a Big ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: 1990's futurism and a simple rocket tip (2014-02-09)

I just found a few old issues of Boy's Life and spotted an article by Issac Asimov, entitled "Driverless Cars, Planes in Space: Isaac Asimov Looks at the Future of Travel." He made numerous ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: New project...maybe (2015-10-27)

I love Daddyisabar's airplane designs (as seen on TRF) and I have always been fascinated with ekranoplans (ground-effect flying boats). So I am thinking maybe an ekranoplan-like build might be in ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Probability of building an ekranoplan rises to 50% (2015-10-29)

This is a photoless post since there isn't much physical progress. I found some 54mm tubing, a scratch roughed out balsa cone from a Warthog Build Session (man, I miss them), and some semi-compatible ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Ekranoplan thoughts (2015-11-01)

I have made no real progress but have bought some wood and should be able to get started. Just for my peace of mind, here's an initial checklist: Cut 54mm tube to length and mark four lines. Mark the ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: The Chesapeake Sea Monster is on, like Donkey Kong (2015-11-02)

I have proceeded to cut things up and glue things together, so I guess there is no doubt that I'll build an ekranoplan. That doesn't mean I'll be able to convince the RSO to let it fly.   ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: No complaints here...the Chesapeake Sea Monster swims on (2015-11-04)

After complaining in my previous post, my mysterious wrist pain spontaneously disappeared. It must have been fixed by all that November yard work. As a result, I finished cutting the forward motor ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Ekranoplan, slow but steady progress (2015-11-11)

I think I have all the wood cutting done. Here is the tail spar, the giant tail fin that is typical for the ekranoplans, one of the main wings (the other is being glued on at the moment), a ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: The ekranoplan is crawling along (2015-11-23)

After recovering from a URTI (which also kept me off the field this past weekend), I have resumed work on the Chesapeake Sea Monster. The photo shows one of the transitions that I have been talking ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Model building at MSFC and lack of ekranoplan progress (2015-11-30)

NASA MSFC's Rocketology blog has an interesting entry about master model maker Barry Howell . Man, his creation make me drool. Here's a teaser, make sure you take a look at the whole post! Nothing to ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Rainy day ekranoplan thoughts (2015-12-02)

It's been too rainy to prime and even get in a swing test. I decided to make a Rocksim model just for kicks. Despite having put in all sorts of crazy winged things with pods and pods on pods, I was ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Yes. Yes there is an ekranoplan Rocksim model (2015-12-02)

Well, my inability to get Rocksim to cooperate ate at me until I decided to give it another try. The trick is that I couldn't copy pod-on-pod structures or their constituent parts. For instance, ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: The Chesapeake Sea Monster is a real swinger (2015-12-04)

I took advantage of this mild and sunny day to do my swing test. I my heart hiccupped as it initially started belly forward. However, it quickly righted itself and went totally nose first! Yay. I ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: It glides! It glides! (2016-08-14)

Well, I consider the first flight test a success. It seems to glide when hand tossed across the yard. A little better against the wind than with it. And the foam survived the initial set of hard nose ... [Read More]