BATON ROUGE, Louisiana USA — Ed Shihadeh and Giant Leap Rocketry are once again leading the way with the introduction of their brand-new Dyna-Wind compression-bonded fiberglassed airframes, the perfect balance between quality, strength, ease-of-use and price.

Giant Leap's new Dyna-Wind compression-bonded fiberglassed airframe tubing.

Other airframe tubing is either too flimsy as is regular kraft cardboard, doesn't absorb adhesive well or softens when warm and is unsuitable for stress application as is plastic tubing, too time consuming as is regular phenolic tubing when dealing with spiral grooves or too heavy and too expensive as is filament-wound G-10 fiberglass. Not to mention that filament-wound G-10 fiberglass isn't available in the standard sizes that rocketry airframe tubing is available in, making nose cone choices difficult.  The solution is Dyna-Wind compression-bonded fiberglassed airframes.

What is a compression-bonded fiberglass airframe? It's Giant Leap's new offering of a phenolic-impregnated core that is laminated with 10 ounce fibgerlass cloth saturated with top quality Aeropoxy epoxy resin.  Giant Leap doesn't use cheap polyester resins, which is inferior, smelly and carcenogenic.  The fiberglass laminated tubing is then compression-bonded under extremely high pressure, more pressure than traditionally available using vacuum bagging techniques or shrink-wrap tape, and finally, the composite airframe is heat-cured for additional strength.

The result is the perfect airframe, complete with a glossy smooth finish that is shiny enough to show your reflection with absolutely no grooves to fill whatsoever.  Dyna-Wind compression-bonded fiberglassed airframes are very strong, and very light, only running about 10% heavier than a standard phenolic airframe tube.  Compared to filament-wound G-10 fiberglass tubing, the Dyna-Wind tubing offers significant savings — a 7.5" filament-wound G-10 airframe tube would normally run you over $230, where the same sized Dyna-Wind tube only costs you $99.

Check out the new Dyna-Wind compression-bonded fiberglassed airframe tubes on the Giant Leap Rocketry website, currently available in 2.152" (54mm), 3.002" (75mm), 3.900" (98mm), 6.007" and 7.512", and according to Giant Leap, they are expected to begin stocking 5.38" Dyna-Wind tubing in the near future as well.

Website: http://www.giantleaprocketry.com/

11-04-2007 09:59 PM  #1
StuBarrett Certified Level Eleven   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 116	Glassy smooth? My experience is that the compression should remove excess resin so that the glass weave should show. It should *not* be smooth. I guess that the compression is so great that the weave is flattened? Ed, can you comment? Stu

11-05-2007 03:42 AM  #2
agrippo Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 105	Interesting comment Stu. I had always thought the best layup had an approximate 50 - 50 split by weight between the resin and cloth and how smooth the final finish was didn't matter unless your going with min. diameter and need a prepped surface for fin attachment and tip to tip coverage. Are all those people using Mylar and various bagging techniques going down the wrong path? Andrew

11-05-2007 06:57 AM  #3
Bexclent Certified Level Two   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 88	Perhaps it is injection molded - which would be under pressure and could still give a smooth finish.

11-05-2007 07:40 AM  #4
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2815	Quote: Perhaps it is injection molded - which would be under pressure and could still give a smooth finish. I have read where 60/40, or even 65/35 cloth/epoxy was ideal but unachievable for the most part using hobby tooling w/o risking voids. I have been using PT covered with sleeves for some time, picking the sleeve based on duty and have been very happy with this approach except for the time required to fill the weave. I recently bought some FWFG tubing for some small MD projects and was dissapointed by both the weight and diameter for such a high dollar product. This stuff looks very interesting. Maybe we will also see some CF produts in the line if there is enough demand.

11-05-2007 01:49 PM  #5
H_rocket Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 497	What weirds me out is how they managed to skip over the 5.38" tubing size. It seems that would be a sizable chunk of the market for HPR. Goodness knows I have a bunch of airframes in that size.

11-05-2007 01:56 PM  #6
heada Certifiable   Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 811	Thus sayeth the article: "and according to Giant Leap, they are expected to begin stocking 5.38" Dyna-Wind tubing in the near future as well." -Aaron

11-05-2007 03:25 PM  #7
H_rocket Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 497	Once again I get caught not reading the whole freaking aricle Who's got the clue-by-four to whack me with?

11-05-2007 03:44 PM  #8
heada Certifiable   Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 811	So, 3 years ago my father gives me a wood lathe for chrismas. Having no experience turning anything at all before, I put in a bit of 2x4 about 3 feet long that I had lying around taking up space. I try rounding over the last 6 inches or so and realize that its just about the right size for a handle. I unchuck the 2x4 and hold it by my new handle. I thus named it my "clue-by-four" and have since taken it into work and have it on my desk for those users that are asking for something they know better than to ask for (I'm a system admin) -Aaron

11-05-2007 04:16 PM  #9
H_rocket Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 497	Quote: ... I thus named it my "clue-by-four" and have since taken it into work and have it on my desk for those users that are asking for something they know better than to ask for (I'm a system admin) -Aaron I prefer a belt fed weapon. Got tired of stopping to reload. I do security, systems engineering, and L3 support.

11-08-2007 02:07 AM  #10
StuBarrett Certified Level Eleven   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 116	Quote: Interesting comment Stu. I had always thought the best layup had an approximate 50 - 50 split by weight between the resin and cloth and how smooth the final finish was didn't matter unless your going with min. diameter and need a prepped surface for fin attachment and tip to tip coverage. Are all those people using Mylar and various bagging techniques going down the wrong path? Andrew I agree with the the 50/50 split. I believe that this should be independent of the finish however. I have seen too many airframe layups that use too much resin. The fliers always seem to be really impressed with their "smooth as glass" finish however. I probably should go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CompositeRockets/ and get another opinion... Stu

11-08-2007 06:23 AM  #11
Gregzo TRA #9866 L3   Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 25	Quote: Who's got the clue-by-four to whack me with? You have to ask?

11-08-2007 07:47 AM  #12
agrippo Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 105	Quote: I have seen too many airframe layups that use too much resin. The fliers always seem to be really impressed with their "smooth as glass" finish however. Your not joking, there is absolutely no benefit to having excess resin in the layup. It's just brittle garbage. Andrew

11-08-2007 04:47 PM  #13
jderimig Certified Level Two   Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 79	Quote: Your not joking, there is absolutely no benefit to having excess resin in the layup. It's just brittle garbage. Andrew Like paint! -----------

11-08-2007 06:17 PM  #14
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2815	hee, hee. I'm thinking of becoming one of the nude rocket colonists myself. Spend so much time, and they always get dinged, rail rash, whatever. Spend far more time finishing than building. Coat of kilz at most is my new years rez.

11-09-2007 04:01 PM  #15
Bexclent Certified Level Two   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 88	Quote: .......Spend far more time finishing than building....... I know what you mean - I am a detail junkie, and thankfully I really do enjoy finishing them. Then when they are done I say that they are too nice to launch - but I build 'em to fly 'em and up they go! I tell myself that I'll build more - but when a tree eats one, all I can think about is how much time I had into it! That nudist colony is sounding pretty good! Where do I sign up?

11-09-2007 04:15 PM  #16
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 3189	I remember at Orangeburg one time I had two rockets land in the stand of pine trees behind the flight line. Those are pretty tall pines, maybe 50-60 feet in some places. I refused to let them stay there. I took the tent poles from two different tents I had and masking taped them all together with a length of tubular nylon and like someone trying to stand a spaghetti noodle on end, finally wobbled around enough to wrap the TN around the recovery harness and pulled them down. What used to really get my knickers in a wad was the recovery event dents in unglassed airframes. I eventually took to glassing everything to eliminate this aggravation.

11-09-2007 05:52 PM  #17
ncrocketeer Certified Level Two   Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 232	The pressure molding technique is a proprietary technique that was developed over a long period of time. It results in a light yet smooth surface. It is not something that could be easily accomplished when doing layups by hand. The smooth finish results in less work for the rocketeer and less weight. No filling weave, no filling voids, less primer, and less prep time are the benefits. That results in less work, and less total weight. There is NO "brittle garbage". In fact, there is no garbage at all with ANY Giant Leap Product.

11-10-2007 06:07 AM  #18
agrippo Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 105	I agree, I've seen the new glassed tubes that Giant Leap is offering for sale and they are a work of art. Much better then what I can do and mine come out pretty well. They are going to be great for people that don't want to take the time to mess with everything or don't have the facilities and the cost is way below anything else on the market. Andrew

11-10-2007 08:39 AM  #19
denverdoc Rana sapiens   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 2815	Considering the most time I spend on construction is usually filling sock weave, I definitely can't wait to get my hands on some.

11-15-2007 10:29 PM  #20
sandmantoy Certified Level 2   Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 21	Since I end up looking at my rockets more than I get to launch them and it is my favorite part, fit and finish are a priority. Scratches and dings don't bother me as much as looking at one hanging in a tree. At least it will look good on the pad if it is the last time someone sees it lol! I look forward to trying some of the tubing especially if it will cut down on the finish work.

11-15-2007 10:58 PM  #21
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 3189	Here's another photo of the tubes: A thing of beauty.

11-16-2007 08:29 AM  #22
Bexclent Certified Level Two   Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 88	Quote: ... like someone trying to stand a spaghetti noodle on end, finally wobbled around enough to wrap the TN around the recovery harness and pulled them down... LMAO! That would have been worth the price of admission! I used to have a 60' rope saw and a "tree shooter" - a big sling shot that you would use to launch the weighted end of the rope saw over the limb that you were going to cut off. One day I lost a nice rocket in a tree and got the bright idea to saw the limb off. I ran home, got the equipment and went back to the high school to save the rocket. I pulled back the sling shot, took aim, and let fly! So much for my aim - the weight that is on the end of the rope whacked the body tube so hard that the rocket spun around the limb 2 or 3 times! At this point, with the BT in shredds, I gave up and chalked it up to idiocy! That GL Tubing looks NICE! I am definitely going to be using it!