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Vaughn Brothers Javelin

Vaughn Brothers - Javelin {Kit}

Contributed by Ed Sewall

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Manufacturer: Vaughn Brothers

Brief:
The Javelin is a single stage 29mm rocket with a nice sleek 3 fin design.

Construction:
The Javelin comes with a nice set of directions and LOC-type 2.56" tubes, 62" total length. Three G-10 fins for through-the-wall construction are provided. The rocket has a good size payload section which could easily house an altimeter although I didn't build it that way. Plywood bulkheads and centering rings are provided and are good quality. A steel eye bolt is provided for the upper bulkhead to attach the shock cord to. A good length of elastic/braid shock cord is provided as well as a piece of nylon cord for a shock cord attachment loop. A nice long plastic nose cone is provided and fits nicely with the overall sleek outline of this kit.

Instructions provided are good for an experienced builder and a nice overall engineering type drawing of the rocket is provided. Nice if you have to re-build any of the rocket from some flight mishap! A straightforward build makes a sturdy kit. I added two "T"-nut motor retainers on the rear centering ring since I am not a fan of "tape" motor retention.

This was to be my Level 1 rocket so I took my time and did a thorough job of fin fillets using a mix of milled glass with 20 min. epoxy. This was my first G-10 fin rocket and I was careful to sand the fins with 150 grit sandpaper where the fillets would be to make sure good adhesion was obtained with the epoxy.

Rocket LaunchFinishing:
Pretty much standard finishing, tube spiral filling required. I painted my rocket with a bunch of primer coats, primarily to fill those spirals! Then gave it a bright yellow paint job with a black gloss nose cone and hornet like stripes coming down the upper part of the airframe, it looks cool!. No decals were included.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
My first flight with this rocket was my Level 1 and I chose an H128 White Lightning RMS motor. The launch was straight and fast! It went ~2100' (based on the Rocksim simulations).

My next flight was with another H-128 and this time things went sour, a failed delay insulator caused a motor burn-through when the thing was ~150' up. This zippered the upper airframe but the rest of the rocket was intact despite a free fall without a chute from 150'. I cut out the damaged section, added a coupler and a new segment of airframe and it was ready to go again.

The next flight was on a G75 Black Jack, one of my favorites. This was a really nice moderate speed flight that went ~2200' (see photo).

Recovery:
Nylon 24" purple chute that is just right for the rocket. I would down-size if I was putting an I200 in the thing so I would get it back, it's a light rocket (28oz).

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
Nice sleek sturdy kit that flies great.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • Vaughn Brothers Javelin By Ralph W. Strauser

      This is a nice mid-power kit. I used it for my L1 cert. A single stage bird that recovers via 'chute   This kit is pretty straight forward. It was the first HP type kit that I had built so I did not understand the instructions real well at first in regards to the "LOC-type" attachment in the body tube for the shock cord mounting. Other than that the kit goes together easily and is ...

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