X-Wing Rocket Launches, Disintegrates

An anonymous reader writes "Remember the 21-foot X-Wing with four rocket engines? It launched yesterday from Plaster City and here's the video showing what many thought inevitable: total destruction in mid-air. From the post: "I can only say two things. The first is: absolutely amazing. And the second: poor Porkins." "

Build a smaller one that works

[stoolpigeon]

That kid really enjoying the destruction is pretty funny.

For those who'd like to do something similar but on a much smaller scale, Estes [estesrockets.com] has done a number of smaller model rockets based on the Star Wars movies. A couple decent models are R2-D2 [amazon.com] and my favorite, Vader's TIE fighter [amazon.com]. But I would guess the most appropriate to this discussion would be the X Wing [ebay.com]

Too bad they weren't engineers

[G4from128k]

As much as I loved the idea, these people were not engineers or this would never have happened. For all the jokes about "rocket science," reliable rocket design isn't that hard. The forces from the engine are known from the manufacturer, the aerodynamic forces are relatively easy to estimate, checking stability is simple (basic childhood rocketry books tell you how), the forces inside the structure aren't that hard to work out, and the material strengths can be looked up or discovered with a few tests. The point is that engineering lets one design something that just works. Sure, if one really wants to push the envelope on performance (e.g., the highest performance engines on the lightest possible structures), then it becomes necessary to do some testing, but by the time a full-scale model is done, the chances of success should be fairly high (and the risk of failure known).

With a bit of thought, pencil, paper, and a calculator (or slide rule) these folks could have built an X-Wing that really flew well again and again. But perhaps that wasn't their goal. Sometimes the goal is just to watch stuff blow up.

Re:Maybe I missed it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi,
had the same prob.
Just activate JavaScript and you will be able to see the video.

Re:two items from video

[hey!]

profanity in the presence of minor is hilarious.

If he had said "Jesus Christ" it would have been profane. In this case we have common place vulgarity, from the Latin vulgris, of the common people, which leads us to the humor of the situation:

What is hilarious is an adult acting in the way everybody is commonly known to act, but from which children are enjoined.

On the other hand, one might observe that the word "profane" often refers in sociological contexts to those matters which are of an ordinary, day to day nature, as opposed to the sacred which is outside the realm of ordinary experience. Therefore one may learn the profane through observation, but the sacred is primarily learned through other people.

Thus, that the stars exceed Man's grasp is a profane fact; that Man should reach them is a sacred opinion, which is the moral of today's ironic shaggy dog post.

Re:Yoda says....

[shawn(at)fsu]

I think they said on their web page it had some sort of control surfaces(es) or something and that according to it's computer models it would fly. That was the my whole issue with it. Them saying a flying model of an X-wing and when you read a little deeper it "flew" in computer simulations. Modeling and simulation is my profession, and I'll be the first to say just because it does well in simulation might not mean anything esp if you models and simulations are messed up.

Re:Huh...

[kayditty]

No, you're not the only one (someone else in this story's comments had the same problem), but you're in a minority. Try the raw FLV: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/video/xwing_launch_gawker.flv [gawker.com]

Re:Build a smaller one that works

[retiredtwice]

The video doesnt seem to be on the site anymore, but it is on youtube. Search "X wing" and sort by date or http://youtube.com/watch?v=ogYrvEEM0Ts [youtube.com]

Re:Build a smaller one that works

[BuR4N]

Very nice, here is another great launch clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmlgN4DRk2Y [youtube.com]

Direct Link to Video...

[appleguru]

Just captured the flash video for those of you who don't like flash/java:

http://g.appleguru.org/x_wing_flight.mov [appleguru.org]

(5.7MB, H.264, AAC, .mov)

clearer vid of the launch

[gregs7726]

I was there to see it take off too. I also took video, might be a little clearer in this vid: http://view.break.com/378238 [break.com] Greg

Re:Top Gear Reliant Robin Rocket

[Bios_Hakr]

That's misleading. During the overall profile of the flight, the Shuttle averages about 1:1. The last 10k or 15k feet, the Shuttle glides quite well.