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A really cool-looking scale model of a Japanese surface to air missile. Unfortuantely the kit is a bit flimsy and arrived a bit banged up. I managed to get one of the tiny couplers caught in the tube without noticing it and after gluing the two body tubes together, the second coupler was unretrievable. So I had to reinforce the back end with some wood glue so it won't burn, I hope. This was my first scale rocket [other than the Phoenix, which I made no attempt build as a scale representation], and I enjoyed building it. For a D-powered kit it is very large. It is nearly 1:2 scale! Very lightweight body tubing (admittedly flimsy, though). I like the parabolic nosecone and the suggested camo paintjob which I emulated, though their "tan" is a lot more yellow than mine. During the October 20, 2001 launch the rocket suffered severe damage with a power prang and had to have the nosecone surgically removed from inside the bodytube. On November 2nd, I cut off the broken bits and spliced on a new piece of BT-80 tube, moving the forward bulkhead and noseweight washer up considerably. This should make the rocket much more stable, though it does take away some of the scale-ness of the rocket. In honor of its additional 8" of length, I renamed it the TAN-SAM XL. Unfortuantely, the repairs came too late and by the time the November 3rd launch rolled around, the glue on the forward bulkhead hadn't cured and the first ejection blew it to shreds. I have had enormous difficulty getting this rocket to fire on both engines. Not sure if it is my fault or something with the rocket itself. 
HistoryThe Tan-SAM, more formally known as the Type-81 Tan-SAM SAM-1J, was added to the Japanese Self-Defense Force's arsenal in the early 1980's. It is a lightweight, portable system for use against low-to-medium level targets, and is intended to replace the aging HAWK system. Tan-SAM (TAN meaning "short," as in "short-range") uses an improved, much more compact tracking system than HAWK, has a range of approximately 10 km, and reaches speeds of Mach 2.4.
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