Brief:
54mm HPR rocket with a bad attitude.

Construction:
The kit comes with very nice PML parts. I replaced most of them though with Hawk Mountain fiberglass airframe components. You have a short motor tube section of airframe which joins with another tube to allow you to set up the two sets of fins. Then you have a very long (48") main chute body tube. You get four sets of thick plywood centering rings and two sets of fins. The fins are from G-10 fiberglass stock. The large curved fins are the trailing fins in the RapTor configuration while the small fins are the cutter fins. I'll explain how this works later. All of the other material is pretty standard for high power circles.

The RapTor is a kit from a European high power vendor called Rebel Rocketry. Although English is a second language for the vendor, the instructions were well written, easy to follow, and included many photographs to help guide in the rocket's construction. The rocket was easy to construct and required no special supplies or tools, although a Dremel always make construction chores much easier. I did beef it up by adding PML foam to both fin cans to make sure the fins were locked in, especially the large curved fins.

Finishing:
I finished it with standard Krylon spray paint and coated it with a polymer to protect the finish from scratches and such. The kit also came with some neat looking decals that reminded me of lettering that might be seen on the side of one of Babylon 5's Vorlon craft. I think it looks great on the rocket.

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
I used a Cesaroni J400 for her maiden flight. It was a nice smoky take off against the clear Black Rock, Nevada sky. Although it didn't go high because of the weight, she flew well and looked fantastic in the sky. She probably would fly like a bat out of hell on a K and break mach on a 54mm L motor.

Recovery:
I used a 60 inch Spherachute for recovery and 9/16 inch Kevlar® strap for the shock cord. The rocket used dual deployment and deployed well in both phases of recovery. The rocket only went up to 2900 feet on the J400 and it is a big rocket, so the entire flight was easily viewed by everyone. The rocket landed without a scratch and was ready to fly with very little prepping.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
According to the material made available by Rebel Rocketry's owner, Frand De Brower, the RapTor is a totally new concept for an aerodynamic projectile. The cutter fins (the small ones) prepare the airflow for the large main fins in the rear of the rocket. He claims this configuration corrects destabilized air flows to stabilize the projectile and uses the ionizing air properties that this creates to reduce drag.

Translation: the faster it goes the more it ionizes the air flow around it. This lubricates its passage at a sub molecular level where the transition of solid to liquid physics takes place thus defeating or greatly reducing the drag factor.

The RapTor was designed by Zigi Sinnette/Kklynossikki, a retired ex-military engineer and ordinance technician who lives in the United Kingdom. Zigi is 60 years old and a serving member of UKRA in the capacity of a council member ordinance officer and is a Level 2 RSO.

The kit comes in three sizes, 3 inch, 4 inch, and 6 inch. One smaller than the 3 inch version is in the works as well.

Be that as it may, the Rebel site says that the rocket was designed as a "missile for peace." I doubt that myself. One look at the wicked lines of this bad boy tells me that it would rather kick butt and not bother to take any names...

I promised the manufacturer not to include a Rocksim file or to be specific about the measurements in order to protect his ability to avoid having clones made of his rocket. However, although the price was a little more than other rockets similar to it due to shipping concerns from the Netherlands, I felt that it still was a good deal considering the fabulous service I received from the vendor.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5