Calling Jim Jarvis and other high performance wizards. I am planning a very high performance 2 stage flight in future land and looking for discussion on the consequences and challenges associated with staging above mach. I am also interested in the challenges, advantages, and disadvantages with lighting the sustainer above and below mach.
First, staging, this would naturally occur exactly at booster burnout ideally. If the rocket is above mach when this happens what issues are there with making sure staging happens smoothly? This will be a 54mm to a 3" rocket so the booster would be more draggy which should help.
Second, is there any advantage in letting the sustainer slow to less than mach then break mach again after sustainer light?
There is lots of turbulence and extra forces in the mach transition, but if the rocket handles it well once, is it a problem to do it twice?
It seems like you could gain some extra altitude into lower density air for the sustainer by waiting having less time at mach 2+ in thick air which would be easier on composite fins and nosecones. In addition the max speed would be less.
Are these advantaged outweighed by problems in the mach transition?
Sorry if this is came up, haven't seen a lot of in depth discussion on these specific topics.
First, staging, this would naturally occur exactly at booster burnout ideally. If the rocket is above mach when this happens what issues are there with making sure staging happens smoothly? This will be a 54mm to a 3" rocket so the booster would be more draggy which should help.
Second, is there any advantage in letting the sustainer slow to less than mach then break mach again after sustainer light?
There is lots of turbulence and extra forces in the mach transition, but if the rocket handles it well once, is it a problem to do it twice?
It seems like you could gain some extra altitude into lower density air for the sustainer by waiting having less time at mach 2+ in thick air which would be easier on composite fins and nosecones. In addition the max speed would be less.
Are these advantaged outweighed by problems in the mach transition?
Sorry if this is came up, haven't seen a lot of in depth discussion on these specific topics.
Last edited: