The
Opel-Sander RAK.1 was designed by an engineer named Hatry, and first flown at
Frankfurt-Rebstock on September 30th, 1929. It was a rocket powered
glider, and one of a series of experiments in rocket-powered propulsion by
car-magnate Fritz von Opel that involved cars as well as aircraft. It used 16
solid-fuel rockets made by Alexander Sander, a pyrotechnic manufacturer from
Wessermünde. The rockets had a combined thrust of 900 lbs, but were intended to
be fired in relays of two as the plane accelerated along a raised track.
Problems with igniting the rockets electrically were never entirely solved, and
five were found to have remained unfired after the first flight. The RAK.1 flew
for about 1,424 metres and attained a speed of 153 km/h. An attempt with more
powerful rockets was abandoned after a heavy landing which badly damaged the
airframe. The aircraft is now preserved in the Deutsches
Museum.
I
have been aware of the RAK.1 for the past 41 years after my father bought a
small Hamlyn paperback book on rockets and missiles when I was ten. The book
featured artwork of the RAK.1 blasting skywards (with all rockets lit!). I still
have the book as evidenced by the picture below:
Click on
images below to see larger images
The Czech Master Resin (CMR) kit is very simple. It provides nicely moulded fuselage pod halves, cockpit interior detail, main & tail-planes, tail-fins, skid, the various wing struts and tail booms, plus decal options for two colour schemes.
I found everything very straight-forward. It almost goes without saying that CMR provides the resin tail booms as patterns rather parts to be used, as they could not possibly support the tail. I made my tail booms out of thick wire rolled on glass with a steel ruler to straighten it. I stretched heated plastic tube over the wire to simulate the strengthening collars where the booms join, and used thick foil to provide the boom attachment points at the tail-fins. I also stretched some Plastrut streamlined strut section to make the wing struts.
P-18-19,
“Rockets & Missiles” by John W.R. Taylor, Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1970
Completing
this model was made difficult because my left arm was in a splint and my hand
bones wired, after two of three surgeries to reconstruct my wrist. Suffice to
say that I dropped and broke the tail off at least 12 times during the build and
the main-plane at least twice. Surprisingly I did not struggle too much with the
stretched-sprue rigging, aileron actuators and other small details.
I
painted my model an orange-red to match CMR’s artwork, despite the
instructions describing the colour as red (the other option was for blue trim).
This
is the second CMR glider kit I have built and, if I ignore the handicap my
injury caused me, I would have to say that this kit was almost as simple as
resin kits come, and a good option for someone with one or two other resin kits
already completed. I plan to make more CMR glider kits as they add some real
variety to the model cabinet, and they are nice and simple builds. I thoroughly
recommend the RAK kit to anyone who wants to add something unusual to their
collection.
Mark Davies
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