14 September, 2010

If this isn't an Addiction I don't know what is.

So I got to thinking about it the other day and decided that I needed to do an inventory of my rockets. I discovered to my surprise that I have over 50 of them, yes, I said 50. While I am sure that this is not a world record by any means it is more than I expected. I didn't really believe just how many rockets I have because they are spread out all over the apartment so I decided to try to put them all in the same place and this is the result.

If this isn't an addiction I don't know what is.

12 July, 2010

A flash of inspiration

Length: 21"
Diameter: 1.64"
Altitude: 1500'
Skill Level 3 maybe a high 2


And it came to pass that as I was working on my other rockets this past week a vision was opened unto me. And I beheld a Rocket, and the rocket was about one cubit in length. And I beheld that it had thre fins upon three tubes that rested within the bossem of the rocket.




And I beheld that I had the components for such a rocket. Therefore, I did open the program Rocksim and did create a new file. And I beheld the file that it did bring exceedingly great joy to me. Therfore I began to lay out the rocket and to cut the centering rings and to trace the fin templates onto balsa. And the workmanship was exceedingly fine for it was mine, or in other words it was good enough for who it was for. Wherefore it did enter into my heart to finish building this rocket that it may one day ascend to heaven and there deploy its parachute and descend slowly again unto the earth from whence it was taken and to then rise again and again and bring joy to all who behold it. And again I say unto you that if your faithful unto the hobby of model rocketry that this rocket will bring you joy and rejoicing all the days of your life. And thus it is. Amen.

I hope that wasn't to blasphemous.

11 July, 2010

Projects

So this past Wednesday I got a package from the wonderful people at Balsa Machining Service (BSM) which contained everything I needed to build Two rockets that I have been looking forward to building for some time now. The first is the Classic Orbital Transport.



I have wanted one for along time. Orbital Transport is probably the rocket that got me interested in rockets in the first place. I used to spend hours down in the crawl space playing with my dads model and just imagining it fly. Then I found the instructions and decals for it on line so I bought the stuff my dad needed to fix his, (I was not the one that broke it in case you were wondering) printed a new sheet of decals and finally got to see it fly. Then I found out that BSM sold the fins for it laser cut and everything so I decided I would build my own. I bought the fins well over a year ago when I got the parts to build The Dart and have been waiting for the next time I ordered to get the nose cones and other things which I needed. It just didn't make much sense to pay $6.00 shipping for $2.00 Nose cones. Anyway the result is below, ready for sanding sealer and paint. The above picture is of my jig to keep the fins straight while the glue dried. I knew those old text books would come in handy.



My second project is the rear ejection design mentioned in my last post. It was a good build that I wish I had taken more pictures of because certain aspects of it would be difficult to just explain.


The first step wast to cut the tubes to length and mark them and then cut out the slits for the ejection gases. Once that was done I realized that there would be a lot more to building this rocket than I had originally anticipated. The most significant challenges was how to mount the shock cord and then there was no room for recovery wadding. So I could make the rocket go up but the landing part wouldn't be pretty.


So here is my solution put a screw eye in the forward bulkhead attach the shock cord to that and then stick a BT-5 body tube around it until it is into the recovery payload tube. The above picture shows how I used a spent 13mm motor to attach the body tube. By the way if you like to design and build your own rockets I recommend keeping your spent motor casings and investing in a miter box and razor saw. They make great centering rings and tube couplers and thrust blocks and are a lot cheaper, but I digress. I then had to figure out a way to get the thing into position without gluing the shock cord to the side of the body tube. This involved another BT-5. The recovery wadding problem I solved by using a baffle made out of stainless steel kitchen scrubby pad stuff. Again I wish I had taken a picture.

Keeping the fins on the rocket and straight has always been a challenge. Again the text books came in handy. As a random side not I used my Statics &Dynamics, Space systems elements, Propulsion, Mechanics of Flight and Numerical methods books. To mark the tube I drew the angles on a pizza box and cut out a hole for the body tube.


And here is the final product. Ready for sanding sealer and paint. All in all it was a good build and I am excited to finish and fly it.

03 July, 2010

Rear Ejection

Length: 21"
Diameter: 1.64"
Altitude: 1000'-2000'
Skill Level 3

This one is easily my most ambitious project to date. This rocket combines two things that I have always wanted to try; Clustered motors and rear ejection recovery. What I did was put the parachute in the motor mount tube seal off a chamber a few inches above that and put two motors, one per pod, and pipe the gases into the recovery section.

This design provides a few very nice features. First off, by having the motor and recovery systems neatly packaged at the back of the rocket it leaves most of the length of the body for payload. It is completely isolated from the hot ejection gases so who knows what you could put in there. An additional feature that is more useful if you are more like me and like to just fly the rocket is the fact that because you have two motors you have a redundant recovery deployment system. If one motor doesn't do it the second one might.

I just ordered the parts to build this one a few days ago so I will let you know how it goes when I finally fly it.

UPDATE(12/25/2014)

So I flew this one back in October on two B6-4's with an altimeter on board.  It flew to 332 feet which was only 3 ft off of what RockSim Predicted.  This is quickly becoming one of my favorite rockets.

Super Ninja


Length: 23.1
Diameter: 0.976
Altitude: 2600'
Skill Level 2

The super ninja was suposed to be an upscaled version of the Ninja made by Estes. My younger brother got the Ninja for Christmas one year but since he wasn't into rockets very much at all he gave it to me. I liked it so much that I decided to try to make it bigger. The fins are an acurate scale but I had to make the rocket longer and add weight to the nose to get it stable. What I was trying to accomplish with this rocket as well was the ability to fly it on A-E Black powder motors. It worked ish. On the first flight I lost the adapter that I built and I think that since then the body tube got crushed. The short story here is that this one has yet to reach its full potential.

Drifter

Length: 23.83"
Diameter: 1.64
Altitude: 770'
Skill Level 1

This is another spare parts rocket that I threw together. I call it drifter because I put a 24" chute in it. I have noticed that my biggest strugle when comes to desiging custom rockets is the paint. I had this rocket put together for weeks and weeks before I decided how to paint it. What I eventualy decided on was silver with a metalic blue base that kind of feathered into the rest of the rocket. My wife really liked how it turned out. Again this one is a virgin as I have not yet had a chance to fly it.

Epic Failures

Not everything always goes the way you plan and somethings look better on the computer or on paper than they do in reality The following are some examples of my "not so Successful designs.



This first one was hatched as a high flying performance rocket. I had just purchased the Rocksim software and was excited to try my hand. so I made it as light as possible to maintain the proper static margin. The problem was that I didn't realize that what Rocksim was reporting as static margin was just that as a ratio of the diameter of the rocket so I tweaked the design until it said that I was at .6 or about what the diameter of the rocket was in inches. It first flew on an A8-3 just to make sure it was stable and it was. So I then put in a C6-5 and the rocket proceeded to do cart-wheels until it lawn darted. I think that when the ejection charge went off that the motor casing went Higher than the rocket did. I have since changed the design to fix the stability problem but I have not yet rebuilt and re-tested the rocket.




This was supposed to be a scale model of Boeing's Delta II launch vehicle. What it is is a complete disaster that I was lucky enough not to kill somebody with. It has an oak nose cone to get the CG "far enough forward". Its first flight went ok, it went up and wobbled a little bit and then deployed the chute just fine. The second flight I try to block from my memory. The rocket now has a very prominent place in the darkest corner of my closet. I think it could work if I put fins on it.... Now there's an Idea!




I call this one Striker. The coolest feature of this "rocket" is an outboard motor pod that ejects the parachute from the main body tube. It was a fun build and an epic flop at launch time. Fortunately I launched it in January and there was some fresh snow to soften the blow.





Again the motor casing went higher and farther than the rocket. On a more positive note I picked the thing up and chucked it and it flew halfway back to the car in a very pretty glide. I think with some more tweaking and a bunker I could get this design to work.

Bumble BEE

Length: 12.063"
Diameter: 1.32"
Altitude: 1200'
Skill Level 2ish

The Bumble BEE was conceived as a, " What am I going to do with that nose cone?" project. I think the nose cone came in a pack I bought when I built stratosphire and had been floating around for years since. The body tube was the left overs from building the Pickerel and the idea of having the motor mount hang out the back end came from Design 1 ( I really need to come up with a name for that thing) and needing more space for the streamer and recovery wadding. I haven't flown this one yet so hopefully it really works.

Mini Sport

Length: 15.01"
Diameter: 0.554"
Altitude: 840'
Skill Level 1

This is another one of my favorites because it is just so simple. It is a 13 mm minimum diameter design. This one is lots of fun to watch as well. not much to say really, it is a very simple design that works well.

The Dart

Length: 28.375"
Diameter: 1.64"
Projected Altitude: 3300'
Skill level 3

After my initial success with staged rockets I decided to see just how high I could get one to go on Estes black powder motors and this is what I came up with. it is a 24 mm D12-D12-E9 combo that I'm sure would disappear if ever launched in that configuration. I planned to launch it at the Pony Express Test Range or the Salt Flats in Utah but moved before I got the chance. The hardest part of building this one was getting the fins to line up straight with one another and mesh close enough to get the seamless look that I was going for.

3 Stage



2 Stage



Single Stage




02 July, 2010

The Pickerel


Length: 16.67
Diameter: 1.32
Projected Altitude: 1000'
Skill Level: 1

This is a scaled version of my senior design project. It was designed by the 2008-2009 USU Chimaera team. We entered a NASA competition to build a high power rocket that would carry a scientific payload to an altitude of one mile AGL. This rocket was built to test the stability of the design. Ultimately we won the competition. If I had $5000 just lying around I would totally build the full size version because it was an awesome rocket.

Stratosphire

Length: 38.9"
Diameter: 1.32"
Projected Altitude: 2500'
Skill Level: 2



My first custom designed rocket. My dad had a Comanche III kit that I had seen in the basement for years and years then I saw it fly and I wanted to one-up it. This thing goes on two 24 mm boosters and then an 18 mm upper stage. Flies like a dream. Also is sleek looking single stage
The last time I launched it staged the Stages failed to separate and were gutted by the motor exhaust. I since have modified the design to avoid similar disasters in the future.




01 July, 2010

Shock Wave


This Design is unnamed as of yet. I got the idea for this rocket as I was scratch building the old Astron Trident model from instructions I found on the internet. As I was waiting for the glue to dry on the motor mount section I looked at it and thought to my self put fins on it and call it good. So I did. This one will fly 1500' on an Estes C6-7 and is a fun one to fly. Probably one of my favorite designs. I would class this as a Skill level 2 rocket.

Length: 12.25"
Diameter: 0.976

I love Rockets. What else can I say.

My dad started flying rockets when he was a teen and it has run in the family ever since. I personally have gotten in deeper than anyone else in my family to this point and I am trying to make my career with rockets. So naturally I have come up with some of my own designs which of course I think are pretty sweet, but I am curious to know what other Rocket enthusiasts think. So take a look and let me know.