Moonliner!

When I was a kid we used to drive from Phoenix to visit my Uncle Larry in Pasadena, California, and our family would go to Disneyland.  Back then, there was a "futuristic" rocket in Tomorrow Land, based on a design by Dr. Verner von Braun.  I'd forgotten about it until we visited my best friend in Kansas City and saw this on the roof of the old TWA headquarters in downtown KC:

Old pictures I've seen showed the TWA logo on either side of this Moonliner rocket.

When we got back, I started looking for ways to build this rocket!  There was a company offering a model of the Moonliner, but they stopped producing them because of family health issues.  Then I heard about the Washington Aerospace Club's 2025 Moonliner project to build a 30 inch diameter, 22 foot tall Moonliner!  They successfully launched their monster in September 2025.  They also built a 4" diameter model for club members, but I missed a chance to buy one ($125).  A couple of weeks ago they decided to share the STLs for the 4" rocket.  Their kit came with an assortment of parts, most of which I would need to print:

Interestingly, they use the shafts of arrows to support the legs, but they provided a link to order the "quiver" from Amazon.

Using the painful lessons learned printing my Mega Der Red Max fins and other parts from PETG I printed the nose cone, base, and other parts.  I printed the fin inserts in clear PLA instead of cutting them from acrylic sheets.  The nose cone, which is over 15 inches tall, took over 48 hours to print (I learned the hard way that I need to print PETG very slowly for best results).

The tailcone is 12 inches tall and took ~31 hours to print.

For grins, I did a test fit of the tailcone in the extra 4" body tube I bought; I'll need to trim it down to 5 1/2" for use in this kit (I may use the rest to make a backup Moonliner and/or build a 4" version of the Estes Alpha).

Printing the leg supports proved to be more complicated than expected.  I printed samples using both PETG and PLA at 30% infill (not solid) but both snapped ~an inch from the top when I flexed them gently.  I decided to try printing at 100% infill with white PETG, then cutting and inserting the arrow shaft before doing any more bending of the legs.  The 100% infill (no gaps) was much smoother on the surface and will be easier to generate a smooth surface for painting.

I'm printing the final leg tonight, have printed the centering rings and will use the 48" parachute I bought for my Mega Der Red Max, so can start working on this as soon as I trim the body tube to the right size.  I've run some simulations that suggest the Moonliner will crash on the biggest engine I currently own, an F67-6W (too long of an ejection delay):

I'll need to order a much larger engine, like a G76-4, to get the rocket to over 500 feet, and set the JLCR to deploy at 400 feet.

Build notes to follow, after I cut the body tube to size.