BumbleBee, Uncategorised

A new Rocket

Not long after the launch of March Fly, I decided to commit myself to another large and exciting rocket project. This time, to build an extremely high performance 38mm rocket.

Goals

My high level goals for this project are to:-

  • Build a rocket that is capable of very high altitudes for its size. (Open Rocket simulations suggest that with the most powerful motor available, it should be able to reach altitudes of ~4800 metres).
  • To create a rocket that can be used in multiple configurations. e.g. as a medium powered rocket, right up to high powered rocket. Also want it to be usable in two stage configurations.
  • To gain more experience building rockets and designing rockets with new materials and different techniques.
  • Ability to fly faster than Mach 1.65 when equipped with a more powerful motor when flown in single stage configuration.

Rocket Design

All rockets that I’ve built to date  have been from kits. This will be my first scratch-build rocket. I think I’m up for the challenge.

Below is a screenshot of the rocket from Open Rocket.

Preliminary design of rocket
Preliminary design of rocket

In this screenshot, it has the smaller motor in it. Flying this motor would be good as a shake-down test.

Key Design Features

  • The rocket is to to be Minimum Diameter. It has to be if it is going to go high and fast.
  • The rocket air-frame is to be constructed out of Carbon Fibre. This is very light and very strong material.
  • The air-frame diameter at the back of the rocket is slightly greater than the rest of the rocket. This will allow the rocket to be staged. This is so the motor retaining plug does not interfere with the lower stage.
  • We have 110mm of air-frame below the fins to allow mating with other rocket.
  • We will not be employing lugs, buttons on this rocket. This is to minimise drag.
  • We will use a Classic 2 parachute by Sky Angle.
  • The Nose cone and the coupler will be fibreglass to allow radio signals to radiate, but the remainder of the rocket air-frame will be carbon fibre
  • The fins will be 2.4mm thick G10
  • We will do tip to tip of the fins for added strength.

Scratch-Build

Scratch Build doesn’t mean making up the build as a I go along. I am writing up some documentation to help me refine the design and the building steps. This has proved extremely important for the air-frame build already.