Warren B. Musselman

Heli-coils (STI thread) have greater external thread contact area to the base material than the standard thread bolt or screw has to the interior. The heli-coil, in theory, will not fail until the bolt or screw has failed.

Sorry I didn’t make it today guys – I think this is the first cleanup I’ve missed since ’03. However, I spent the time in the machine shop working on something so the time was not ill spent. I can…   Read more»

We are verging into political terrain here and like my daddy told me, there are 4 things people don’t talk about in polite company – religion, politics, personal sex practices, and how much money you make. All those are best…   Read more»

For the brief time it was active, I was a part of the Big Project – a TRA group who was thinking it might be possible to throw something small into orbit on an amateur basis. After almost 2 years,…   Read more»

I would bet one of the strap-ons alone would put a couple hundred pounds at least into LEO.Given that UP Aerospace and Cesaroni both have casually quoted me $50K for a T-class motor, you’d probably be talking at least $10M…   Read more»

If Ed is unavailable, my place is ALWAYS available for equipment maintenance and cleanup. Consider that a given, though given my out of the way location it may not be viable. I also no longer have a viable tow vehicle.That…   Read more»

I had a fantastic night at the North site with Glen Colon-Benet and John Wilke and John’s amazing scope. Talk about dark and clear. I must have seen two dozen galaxies and deep sky objects.

You know Kevin, you worked with my wife for quite a while – Lea Fisher.

Well that was fun. A bit of a disappointment that only 5 or 6 4H’rs showed up, but there were about 25 kids from some school that showed up. Everyone had a blast and the kids were, as kids do,…   Read more»

I’ve got it covered. Larry Haynes called me today and my boss (Vic Davis), another rocketry obsessed fellow, feels it would be a good use of my work time to go do this. I’ll be taking a couple of my…   Read more»

Epoxy doesn’t stick to mylar, so you use it as a release film when laying up fiberglass or carbon fiber. I should say that epoxy “largely” doesn’t stick to mylar, but it does to a degree, just not like it…   Read more»

My parents were saints – they drove 20+ hours down to Florida with no hotel reservations to be had so a 9 year old kid could watch Apollo 11 liftoff (from the parking lot of a shopping center in Titusville)…   Read more»

We’ve been asking for 50K for a number of years. 35K was their compromise and we’re lucky to have it given our location in the DIA approach.

Hoppe’s #9… I never would have thought of it thought it makes total sense. The smell alone is nostalgia of going shooting with my dad too.

If you’re looking for statistics with good data, I can’t think of any comprehensive source. Certainly no one at NCR tracks this info.For my own part, I had 4 failed L2 attempts and all but 1 failure were the result…   Read more»

You can touch the SR-71 at the SAC museum just west of Omaha.

Oooh Bear. I experimented with laying up fin stock with aluminum sheet, but never anything nearly that thin. A layer of 5.6oz carbon is about .008″ if compressed and is certainly far more rigid than aluminum or perhaps even steel…   Read more»

As I’ve said before, I’m a complete amateur with nothing more than rules of thumb and an empirical approach. I’d very likely take a stab at building a foam wing glider that glides well and then overbuild the shit out…   Read more»

Feel free to take over the idea Adrian, I defer to your far greater professional experience in aerospace.

I like the idea of targeting something sized for a J350… I have 3 or 5 or maybe more of them in the magazine as well as a couple casings. Heavy duty construction… Anyone, anyone?