Fastest Documented Amateur Rocket Flight??

[Tim51]

[QUOTE="wclaybaugh2, post: 2455070,

I’m less certain that just spending a pile of money means it is not amateur: if I spend $1000 per month on rocketry than after 10 years I’ve spent six figures…does that mean I am not an amateur?

Or consider a large University with a billionaire sponsor…do those facts mean their activity is not amateur despite their staffing being entirely students?
[/QUOTE]

I read the point by @Conway Stevens as being it's not how much is spent, but who is spending. If, as @Antares JS stated, the root of the word 'amateur' is doing it solely for the love, someone personally spending six figure sums (or whatever) would just evidence his/her extreme love of rocketry. However, someone who 'produces' a rocket for others (whether they build it themselves or front up a project for investors, students, or a corporation) is involved in a financial transaction or contractual commitment of some kind as part and parcel of that project, so that makes them (at least for the duration of that contractual arrangement) a professional.

 

[wclaybaugh2]

One thing to mention regarding my above comment about the F4 Phantom's radar.

The F4's radar unit is relatively special in that the radar unit, its antenna, and the controller are able to be completely separated and operated outside the purview of the aircraft. This makes it very easy to use on its own as long as you know how to use them, operate them, control them, etc. Its not as easy as hookup XYZ voltage at XYZ Hz and it works. But its not as complex as others that are integrated into the aircrafts subsystems and are required to operate.

As well, the F4's radar antenna has a nice feature in that if you disconnect the actuators, you can guide it manually in a manner called "Spotlighting."

Ok, enough information from me........

It sounds like you know your way around radar.

Again, I don't want to hijack a thread but I would like to ask if you are aware of any commercially available system that does today what that Dutch radar was able to do two and a half decades ago?

I'm aware of a handheld unit (Stalker ATS II) that can measure to about 1300 ft/sec and for metallic rockets would have a range of about 2500 feet but conversations with a sales engineer indicate that it might could but might not be able to reject the signal from the exhaust.

I'd be inclined to buy such a system for the RRS if it could reach out to around 10,000 feet and report to Mach 3 or so.

Bill

 

[Chuck Rogers]

To All:

The 2004 CSXT GoFast flight.

Max Mach number was 5.18, burnout Mach number was 4.99. It was the first hypersonic (greater than Mach 5) amateur rocket.

The Mach number was based on 3-axis accelerometer data. Using accelerometer data is the standard way to do this.


For the flight data, see The Rocketry Forum 2004 CSXT GoFast Flight Data thread at:

2004 CSXT GoFast Flight Data | Rocketry Forum - Model Rocketry Forums


As Bill mentioned the RRS 50 Statute Mile Boosted Dart Flight Doppler Radar Data is on the RASAero web site at:

https://www.rasaero.com/dl_technical_reports.htm
(Special thanks to Bill for providing the data.) Also included is the technical article on the flight which was published in High Power Rocketry Magazine in 1997.


Charles E. (Chuck) Rogers
Rogers Aeroscience