Introducing BourbonRoc

My next project is to venture into HPR clustering and airstarts. One might ask why and the only answer I have is "cause I want to". BourbonRoc is a upscale Bourbon bottle with a cental 98mm and four 75mm motor mounts. Flight stability is controlled by the addition of four 5 gallon Bourbon barrels vaguely resembling tube fins.

BourbonRoc is the epitome of low and slow, the whole flight profile is designed around 1000-1500 ft apogee taking inspiration from TomC's projects.

I have modeled the project in Rhino for the geometry, spreadsheets for the weights and centers, CFD for the center of pressure, and OpenRocket for altitude/stability predictions.

Weights & Centers: View attachment BourbonRocWeightEstimate.pdf

Introducing BourbonRoc:

CFD was used to predict the center of pressure for a range of velocities, the following image shows the pressure on the rocket and streamlines in the flow for 3 degrees Angle of Attack (AoA).

The next image shows a vertical section through the computational domain with velocity contours. The large area of recirculating flow aft of the rocket gives indication of the magnitude of the base drag component BourbonRoc will be subject to.
Center of Pressure: View attachment BourbonRocCFD.pdf

I am targeting MDRA's spring Red Glare 2018 for this project, the sonotube has been ordered and discussions with Python Rocketry are underway for the nosecone and transition pieces.

Since the main objective is HPR clustering and airstarts, I have ordered/received a LOC Warlock customized with a central 54mm and four 29mm motor mounts to gain the experience needed to safely fly BourbonRoc. Due to its size and complexity BourbonRoc will be flown on its central 98mm motor for one or more shake down flights prior to flying on its full cluster.

This thread will serve as a central build thread for both BourbonRoc and the Warlock, including discussions on best practices on HPR clustering and airstarts as it pertains to these two rockets.

Coming up next will be CAD drawings for the custom nose cone and transition pieces.

Cheers!

dhbarr said:

Cheers!

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drat, just a little too late with this one! Will be watching thirstily...(not as good)

Fabulous design for a low and slow flight.
I'll follow from here to the MDRA away cell.

Thanks for building and posting...

Careful not to sample too much of the product! :wink:

Dennis,

This is a very nice project. I will be following this as well.

I think due to the scale the tube fins look more like shot glasses.

Ravenex said:

I think due to the scale the tube fins look more like shot glasses.

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I agree! Maybe turn into stacked shot glasses.


Cool design
Looks like a fun project.

Reminds me of this guy. Flew at URRF II and LDRS 36.

Sir, I salute you! A toast for Dennis!

Ravenex said:

I think due to the scale the tube fins look more like shot glasses.

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I have four 5 gallon Bourbon barrels at my sisters house waiting for me to pick them up, a normal barrel is 53 gallons. I had to compromise somewhere to move the CG forward.

This followed me home today!

djkingsley said:

This followed me home today!

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Uh-oh! Were you snooping around in Tom's garage? :wink:

Very Cool project. "If the Sea was whiskey and I was a Duck, I'd dive my way down and drink my way up!"

Bat-mite said:

Uh-oh! Were you snooping around in Tom's garage? :wink:

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Nope, The Concrete Store in Waldorf supplied it, they even trucked (75mi) it to a concrete plant in Queenstown about 3 miles from my house for free.

Daddyisabar said:

Very Cool project. "If the Sea was whiskey and I was a Duck, I'd dive my way down and drink my way up!"

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I like the quote.

Bottoms up! Can't wait to see this fly!

I need to make a special trip to Maryland to see this.

So some progress has been made, UpscaleCNC cut the centering rings and bulkheads for me and they arrived this morning. They are 24" in diameter and ~0.5" in thickness.



PythonRocketry has been engaged to make the nose cone and neck of the bourbon bottle out of structural foam covered in two layers of glass. The nose cone will have a built in system of adjustable weights to control the Cg.

The 5 gallon bourbon barrels which will become the pods are making their way to me, I ducked a road trip for now. Can't beat almost free transportation, its going to cost me a crabcake lunch.

An older model 15ft sky-angle parachute was acquired yesterday that I am planning on using for the main. The nose cone will come down on its own parachute, which I have several sizes in my stash to use depending on the final weight.

I am working on the design/placement of a small compartment to house the electronics and wire routing conduits for air starting the outboard motors (lots of safety issues to wrangle).

Tubes from LOC arrived today for the 98 & 75 mm motor mounts and the 7.51" tube that will run through the neck of the bottle.

I was wondering where you disappeared to. :wink: Looking good!

The long lead time for Python Rocketry to make the nose cone is stretching this build out. He started late last week so I expect to see him ship it in a couple weeks.

The 5 gallon barrels that will make up the tube fins arrived today, turns out they are from Balcones a Texas Whiskey distillery and not from a Kentucky Bourbon distillery. So much for my sister knowing the difference.

I will be taking the barrel heads out and letting them dry to reduce the weight.



As a teaser, Python Rocketry provided the following picture of the various lifts and the profile templates.

So do you now have to drink 20 gallons of wiskey before you can make your tube fins?

Nathan said:

So do you now have to drink 20 gallons of wiskey before you can make your tube fins?

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I wish. There was some leftovers sloshing around in the barrels to keep the staves tight, maybe a cup full.

Nice "bottle rocket"! :wink:

Have you started on the Warlock? I'm interested in seeing how you set up the air starts.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

Nice "bottle rocket"! :wink:

Have you started on the Warlock? I'm interested in seeing how you set up the air starts.

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I have started the Warlock, I am currently looking at using a RRC3 as the flight computer and a PET2+ to airstart the outboard motors.

I have imported the openrocket file into Rhino and have added some of the 3d printed details.


I have started on the construction, the fins are mounted, the cutouts for the vents have been cut into the air frame, and I have the middle CR mounted to the motor mount tubes.


The plan is to remove the 29 mm motor ejection charges, the vents are just in case.

djkingsley said:

I have started the Warlock, I am currently looking at using a RRC3 as the flight computer and a PET2+ to airstart the outboard motors.

I have imported the openrocket file into Rhino and have added some of the 3d printed details.

View attachment 321834 View attachment 321833 View attachment 321835​

I have started on the construction, the fins are mounted, the cutouts for the vents have been cut into the air frame, and I have the middle CR mounted to the motor mount tubes.

View attachment 321836 View attachment 321837

View attachment 321838 View attachment 321839 View attachment 321840​

The plan is to remove the 29 mm motor ejection charges, the vents are just in case.

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What format do you get out of OR that can be imported to rhino?

I wrote a plugin for rhino that reads the xml from the openrocket file and creates the 3D geometry. The source code is located at https://github.com/dkingsley/RhinoORK. It's still a work in progress and only deals with single stage rockets without pods.