Cosmodrome Rocketry - Nike Smoke {Kit}

Cosmodrome Rocketry Nike Smoke

Cosmodrome Rocketry - Nike Smoke {Kit}

Contributed by Jordan Raice

Construction Rating:
Flight Rating:
Overall Rating:

Manufacturer:

Cosmodrome Rocketry

Brief:
The Nike Smoke is a great rocket with a lot of extra parts for an awesome scale look. If bought directly from Cosmodrome, you get motor retention and a better shock cord system. It flies great on everything from F to H.

Construction:
One body tube and a very impressive 16" nose cone made of balsa. The nose cone comes with a plastic anchor for the nose eyebolt. The shock cord is 12 feet of 5/32" bungee cord. The shock cord mount is preassembled and it is made of 1/16" metal wire that connects to the centering ring.

The construction is straightforward but you have to cut your own fin slots. One thing that may be hard to do is shaping the knife edge fins, however, I decided not to do this. I used couplers to increase the tube strength.

PROs: Strong to the motor mount fin assembly, pretty good instructions.

CONs: You have to cut your own fin slots

Finishing:
Comes with one decal and is pretty easy to finish. The nose cone will need extra sanding sealer unless you use finishing epoxy to coat it, which is something I recommend because balsa dents easily.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
I have not flown it yet but reviews say it flies great. Motor retention is a threaded rod sticking out of the back with a washer and a nut holding the motor in place. All it needs is a little wadding for the cord and I used a Kevlar® pad to protect the chute. I will be flying it soon on an H180 and I will but an update on how it flies.

Recovery:
The kit comes with a 24" chute very similar to the Top Flight 24" chutes. I added a lot of extra weight so I need to use a 30" parachute. If you plan to fly high, stay with the 24" because of drift. Even if the kit is built stock though, the 24" chute will still have it come down a little fast. I would use a 28" chute if you plan on using something that won't go high or if there is little wind.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
This is a great rocket. The tubes though, are thin so if you are planning on using a big motor you should consider using coupler reinforcement. Great for small flights to 750' or neck snapping acceleration on a H180 or H220. It won't break Mach though. I recommend buying direct from Cosmodrome so you get all the extras that some of the dealers don't have yet. I bought mine from Discount Rocketry because Cosmodrome ran out of nose cones. My kit had the old recovery system and shock cord mount. Luckily, Mike at Cosmodrome was nice enough to send me one at no extra charge.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Other Reviews

Cosmodrome Rocketry Nike Smoke By Craig Cline
( Contributed - by Craig Cline - 05/01/01) Brief: This is a very cool mid and high power scale kit of the Nike Smoke that is a lot of fun to build and fly. It can make a good second mid-power rocket with scale looks and can be used to transition to level 1 high power. Construction: The kit came in a bag with all parts in good condition. The first thing that stands out is the awesome ...

Flights

Comments:

J.B. (April 1, 2000)

Cosmodrome's Nike Smoke is a good entry level kit for mid-power rockets. The balsa work is exceptional on the nose cone. Mike Kruger does all the turning himself. I took the extra step on mine to fiberglass the balsa with 3/4 oz glass cloth and Z-Poxy finishing resin. This extra step is well worth it to have the nose cone be more durable and easier to finish for painting. Another change I made was to incorporate the diamond airfoil on the fins. I used the furnished ply fins as the core and added balsa ribs and .030 sheet styrene skins. This adds a nice scale touch to the model with very little weight gain. the styrene also eliminates the need to seal the ply grain for painting. The furnished picture wire used for the shock cord mount was replaced with 1/16" aircraft cable. I like this much better since it is less prone to corrosion. I suggest installing a section or 3/4" wood dowel into the base of the nose come for the recovery system screw eye to attach to. Just adding epoxy and screwing into balsa is not sufficient. I used a spade bit to bore a hole then epoxied in a section of dowel, filed gaps with left over epoxy and sanded flush when dry. Painting was straight forward using Krylon white. Fins were fluorescent orange with one yellow fin. I opted to used dry transfer letters for the UNITED STATES. This eliminates the tell tale of the self adhesive mylar sticker. The rocket was then clear coated with Top Flite's Lustrekote flat clear. This provides a durable and cleanable finish. I added a motor retention system using brass strips bent into a 'z' and attached to the aft bulkhead with 6-32 screws and blind nuts. I also use a 24mm motor adapter since I don't always want to fly this rocket on 29mm motors. I usually fly on AT E18-4W's and AT G80-7W's. The 'E' motor is good for small fields and the 'G' is for all out fun. I am not brave enough to fly it on anything higher performance since putting in a dual deployment system really isn't possible with such a small airframe. If you would like to see a picture of the Nike Smoke you can go to my web site.

D.F. (May 1, 2001)

I agree with the original reviewer that this is a very cool kit. I bought the Quest Nike Smoke as well to have big and little versions of the same rocket. There is a one page write-up of the history and plan of the prototype included with the Quest kit. This write-up was done by none other than Harry Stine. That write-up helped me appreciate even more this kit. It is nice to have a mid power rocket that is not just some 3FNC like most Aerotech and LOC stuff. The balsa nose cone is very nice, and the small details such as the hatches and hatch covers are a nice touch. I built this rocket stock, including the bolt glued to the engine mount for motor retention. I like this method so much I later used it in a PML kit. I puzzled a long time about how to put the sharp edges on the fins. I finally got myself a Dremel for Christmas and after marking the pattern on the fins, hand sanded the angles into the fins. The seven plys of the wood are a good guide as to keeping the angle right. Note that the angle to the edge is sharper out at the end of the fin than it is at the root. That is why this has to be done by hand instead of on a belt sander. The comment (and the picture on his web site) by J.B. says he put a diamond airfoil on the fins, and I believe this is wrong, at least according to the pictures I have found and the kit maker. The Nike Apache had a diamond airfoil, but the Smoke has the airfoil pattern shown by Cosmodrome. Since I had not built a PML kit before this, I did not know about internal glue filets on the fins, and my rocket does not have them. Obviously, the instructions do not mention them, and they are not really necessary with this 13 oz. rocket provided you filet the joints on the outside. Cutting out my own fin slots was difficult but not impossible. Since the angle of the fin edges was not exact, my fin slots did leave 4 triangular gaps to be filled on each fin after I attached the fins. The rocket flew great and straight on an F23-4 in a 20kt wind. I attached the parachute to the shockcord rather than the eyebolt to minimize stress on the eyebolt only from the weight of the nose cone rather than from the weight of the whole rocket.

D.F. (November 7, 2001)

Additional kudos to Cosmodrome for making a well designed and STURDY kit. This rocket has survived a flight where I forgot to pack a parachute with a subsequent tumble recovery (nose cone and body attached by shockcord) from 1000 feet; AND also survived 4 months in the trees waiting for the leaves to fall and reveal it's location in the forest on the edge of our launch area. If not for a chipmunk making it's home in the body and shredding some of the cardboard out of the body tube, this rocket could fly again and it still might. My 29/40-120 reload casing was fine after removing the reload and cleaning it up. The nose cone is a little banged up but fine. The parachute is fine. The outside of the body and the fins are in good shape thanks to an excellent paint job and sturdy construction. The body tube stinks to high heaven, and the inside surface is chewed up thus weakening the body. This rocket was subjected to wind, rain, and frost, and is still in amazing condition. It still may fly again if I can decontaminate, disinfect, and get the shredded cardboard removed; then install a strengthening liner in the body tube. CONGRATULATIONS to Cosmodrome for designing an excellent line of kits! I had filled spirals, painted with Krylon gray sandable primer then Krylon white gloss. The fins had been brush painted with several coats of enamel which understandably was chipped a little. Krylon is obviously a durable paint if done correctly. The decals were still in good shape as well.

J.R. (October 19, 2004)

Just an update of my review. I said it wouldn't break mach, I lied. I flew it on an Ellis Mountain H275 and got 730MPH, heard a boom. My rocket had reinforcements an all kinds of extra weight. If built light it will get 760MPH+. Great FAST engine!!!

Z.S (April 25, 2005)

I thought the rocket had easy assembly, except that you have to cut your own fin slots. Nice review.

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