Mercury Engineering Mutant Daddy

Mercury Engineering - Mutant Daddy {Kit}

Contributed by Mike McFadden

Construction Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Flight Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar_border
Manufacturer: Mercury Engineering
Mercury Mutant Daddy

Brief:
This is a larger low power rocket with a 3" body and 24mm motor mount. My first impression was it's a Big Daddy, but the nose cone is longer and the body thus is longer. Twin parachute recovery.

Construction:
High quality parts. Body Tube: dia=3" lg=14". Nose cone: dia=3" lg=14.5". Motor tube: dia=24mm lg=5". 2 centering rings. 1 engine hook. 1 motor block. Two 12" parachutes. Elastic Shock cord. 4 laser cut balsa fins.

This is a straightforward build. A nice large body tube to work in, 4 fins attaching to the tube. My preference would be for through the wall fins, but with epoxy fillets, the fins seem solidly attached. I used the Estes fin alignment guide for placing the fins. The only modification I made was to add a Kevlar® shield to protect the chutes.

Finishing:
I went with the paint scheme that comes on the packaging, green and black. It came out decent, just don't look closely at the nose cone.... Diagonal taping is hard. There was one decal which went on easily, and the clear is really clear.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I have flown this twice on an E9-6. Good flights. The first flight was a windy day and one of the chutes tangled. There was a minor crack at the base of one fin, but it is still flyable. Probably just cosmetic. The second flight was perfect.

Mercury Mutant Daddy

Recovery:
The shock cord is the typical elastic glued to paper and then to the body tube. I will probably use Kevlar® thread tied and glued to the motor mount and then tie an elastic cord to that in the future. The Kevlar® blanket will save on wadding for this wide mouth rocket. Be careful with the twin chutes as they will tangle, but they do look good coming down.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
Through the wall fins would improve the sturdiness of this kit if one wants to fly it on an AeroTech F motor. It is a nice looking rocket with slow flights up to about 650'on an E motor. If you like clusters, this would be a good kit to add 3 or 4 motors to.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews
  • Mercury Engineering Mutant Daddy By Aaron Tyler (December 28, 2007)

    Brief: Single stage, 3" diameter body tube, single 24mm motor mount, standard parachute recovery (although two twin chutes are used). Construction: The parts list: 3" x 14" body tube 11" nose cone with 75mm base in rocket 24 mm motor tube and engine hook sized for standard E engines (or D with included adapter) 3/16" x 2" ...

Flights

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