10km Project

[Andrej]

Here are some photos and launch videos of my latest project, that was launched on Saturday April 25th. The rocket is a boosted dart configuration. Booster motor has a total impulse 10.700Ns (baby N), is 84mm in diameter and has a filament winded fiberglass casing. Propellant is KN/Dextrose and the motor burns for 2,6 seconds at 1300psi. Booster fins are made from aluminum and they are TIG welded to a short piece of tube that gets screwed to the motor case over the nozzle. Front end of the booster has a short piece of aluminum tube which holds an altimeter, tracker , small parachute and a transition cone. Dart is 37mm in diameter and it weighs almost 4 kilograms. Nosecone, boat tail, fin can and fins are all made from a solid stainless steel. Dart fins are laser welded to the fincan. Electronics used are PF Stratologger and ComSpec AT-2B in the booster and PF Stratologger CF, PF MT4 timer and BRB 70cm GPS in the dart. Theoretically booster and dart should be separated by aerodynamic forces at burnout, however I didn't have any experience with this, that's why there was also an auxiliary separation system in the dart boatail. This system was triggered 0,2 seconds after booster burnout. Flight was successfull. Dart made it to over 10,8km (35.400feet). Booster was recovered 1,5km away from the launch pad, and the dart was recovered 2,7km from the launch pad.


[video=youtube;9vcAQPJUqV0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vcAQPJUqV0[/video]

 

[grouch]

Very very nice.

 

[Aksrockets]

Really cool. Congrats on the successful flight!

Alex

 

[prophecy]

Thanks so much for sharing. I always look forward to hearing about your projects. I'm willing to bet you're approaching record altitudes for sugar motors.

Projects built from the ground up are what I strive for and are so much more engaging than the paint-by-number stuff saturating the hobby.

And you didn't even fly it in the woods this time!

Can't wait to see what you do next-

Steve

 

[nute]

That's awesome. If I was ever doing a huge project, It'd be a boosted dart for sure. Really cool stuff.

Nate

 

[Nick@JET]

Great job, nice workmanship!

 

[fallingrocket]

Bravo!!! Very nicely done.

 

[Andrej]

Thanks to everyone for nice words. Prophecy, yes it was really nice for a change to fly from such an awesome range. Hats off for this goes to great guys from Polish rocket society who organized the launch. My next project is already in the development. It's a 110mm diameter, 35.000Ns sugar motor. I hope it will be ready by autumn for a first test flight.

Andrej

 

[o1d_dude]

Amazing effort, Andrej. Beautiful workmanship on your rocket.

"That's what I'm talking about!!"

 

[fallingrocket]

Thanks to everyone for nice words. Prophecy, yes it was really nice for a change to fly from such an awesome range. Hats off for this goes to great guys from Polish rocket society who organized the launch. My next project is already in the development. It's a 110mm diameter, 35.000Ns sugar motor. I hope it will be ready by autumn for a first test flight.

Andrej

To me it makes it so much more awesome that you did it with a motor that you made yourself. I am very intrigued by the potential of simple sugar motors. Its a shame that they arent more widely accepted.After all every commercial motor we have available, was at one time considered experimental. Just my two cents.

 

[Andrej]

To me it makes it so much more awesome that you did it with a motor that you made yourself. I am very intrigued by the potential of simple sugar motors. Its a shame that they arent more widely accepted.After all every commercial motor we have available, was at one time considered experimental. Just my two cents.

I agree. I'm also intrigued by the potential of sugar motors. Even this not so highly optimized boosted dart rocket was able to fly over 35.000feet on only 11kNs of sugar propellant. If every component was modified for performance at least 60.000feet is possible with the same total impulse sugar motor. Another thing that is great about sugar propellants is that the propellant components are readily available anywhere in the world and that is so cheap. I can make a full M motor reload for $25.

 

[gerbs4me]

Very cool project!!
Best of luck on your future endeavors

 

[TheAviator]

To me it makes it so much more awesome that you did it with a motor that you made yourself. I am very intrigued by the potential of simple sugar motors. Its a shame that they arent more widely accepted.After all every commercial motor we have available, was at one time considered experimental. Just my two cents.

Sugar motors have been around for a while. Homer Hickham's group apparently used it back in the 60's. The problem with sugar mixes is that they don't have the specific impulse. (Oomph per mass of propellant.) Better than BP, worse than APCP. Definitely cheap, though, which is awesome for learning.

 

[tim cubbedge]

Wow! Really cool!

 

[Andrej]

Here are some awesome photos made by Andrzej Chwastek of Polish rocket society: