iter
HPR Glider Driver
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2012
- Messages
- 2,144
- Reaction score
- 73
Spoilers: I successfully flew and recovered this rocket on M650 this past Thursday at XPRS.
This rocket is the culmination of my sewer-pipe construction program that includes 2 3/8" ABS and 3" PVC rockets. My goal with this program is to certify L3 with a cheap and non-labor-intensive airframe, and especially without fiberglass. My intention for all these rockets is to stay subsonic (tube fins do poorly at Mach); large diameter and irregular transitions increase drag, limiting peak airspeed. At roughly $1 per foot, 6" thin-wall PVC is about the most affordable large-diameter airframe material. By comparison, LOC 5.5" tube costs $10/foot.
Here are some pictures of the L3 flight, and of my other plastic tube fins (they may get their own build threads eventually). Construction photos and such follow.
Ari.
This rocket is the culmination of my sewer-pipe construction program that includes 2 3/8" ABS and 3" PVC rockets. My goal with this program is to certify L3 with a cheap and non-labor-intensive airframe, and especially without fiberglass. My intention for all these rockets is to stay subsonic (tube fins do poorly at Mach); large diameter and irregular transitions increase drag, limiting peak airspeed. At roughly $1 per foot, 6" thin-wall PVC is about the most affordable large-diameter airframe material. By comparison, LOC 5.5" tube costs $10/foot.
Here are some pictures of the L3 flight, and of my other plastic tube fins (they may get their own build threads eventually). Construction photos and such follow.
Ari.