Torellian Invader (3" upscale)

This is another upscale of my Torellian Invader, this time built around a three inch fiberglass airframe. My goal is to have the rocket finished and ready to fly for LDRS 44 in April, 2026. It is expected to fly on an AeroTech K805 Mojave Green motor.

Build Progress

I am keeping a detailed build diary - I won't post the whole thing here, but this is an abridged version. The project has had some stops and starts, and I've changed my mind about some things as I went along.

June 17, 2025: Initial brainstorming. I was initially thinking about building the rocket a cluster with small (24mm or 29mm) motors in some or all of the tube fins, but I've decided that's a bad idea, at least for now.

July 11, 2025: Figuring out the tube fin attachment in detail. There will be two 3D-printed rings that slide over the airframe with cutouts to cradle the tube fins, and bolts from the inside of the tube fin into T-nuts inside the airframe.

July 13, 2025: Decided to 3D-print the entire nose cone rather than start with a fiberglass nose cone. Also settled on having a TeleGPS in the nose and a BlueRaven in the coupler. I was initially picturing an external power switch for the TeleGPS (so it could be powered off without pulling the sled out of the nose) but decided against that.

July 16, 2025: Added rail buttons to the design, inside one of the tube fins. This requires a small cheat - the original Torellian Invader had tube fins at 3 and 9 o'clock relative to the canopy, but in order to put the rail buttons opposite the canopy on this design, I need to have tube fins at 6 and 12 o'clock.

July 30-31, 2025: Made more progress on the CAD model and ordered most of the materials from Wildman and McMaster-Carr. I also bought a cutoff saw for cutting the tubes.

September 18, 2025: Coming back to this project after a break and planning next steps. Another part of the design that fell by the wayside is an external camera shroud. I wanted to have a camera on the same side as the canopy, looking back past the "pilot" (in this case, a Greedo action figure) and possibly dress up the shroud so it looked like a laser cannon or something. I finally decided that would add too much weight and drag on that side, so I gave up on that idea.

September 25-27, 2025: Came up with the idea of embedding a wing nut in the tip of the nose and printing over it, so the threaded rod can screw in.

October 9, 2025: Finished CAD on the nose cone while visiting family in Las Vegas.

November 28, 2025: Lost momentum on this project again. Ordered the motor and motor case on a Black Friday sale from BuyRocketMotors.com. Rearranging the task list to put some more fun stuff up front to maintain my enthusiasm. To that end, starting 3D printing prototypes and iterating on the nose cone design.

November 29, 2025: Ordered stickers from StickerShock.

December 1, 2025: Made the first big round of CAD fixes on the nose and getting close to having the flight-ready parts.

Immediate TODOs:

• Nose cone CAD fixes (in progress)
• Print new nose parts (in progress)
• Declutter workshop (bin up other projects)
• Set up chop saw
• Cut motor mount tube
• Cut lower airframe tube
• Test fit parachute and make decision on length of upper airframe tube
• Work on this wiki page

• 
  OpenRocket design
• 
  CAD of nose cone (3D printed in three pieces)
• 
  The Estes catalog page for the Starfighter Combo Kit

Checklist

Pre-launch (before leaving town):

• TBD

Pre-launch (night before launch):

• TBD

At the field:

• TBD

At the pad:

• TBD

Recovery:

• TBD