Supersonic Apogee Aspire Build

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I was just stating what a coke bottle shape would be on a rocket, not what the actual rocket was. Indeed it doesn't seem to be area ruled.

But I don't think area ruling is terribly important on most rockets: wings have much more frontal area WRT an airplane fuselage than any fin would on a rocket airframe. If the fins are that large to merit area ruling, you're certainly not going for performance.
 
blackjack2564 said:
Well ya know they been telling me for quite some time I couldn't keep fins on a rocket.

Been stick'n the biggest motor in rockets the pipe would take for quite some time now.
Guess what.....the fins are still there!

Here's the new 75mm SpaceCowboy. Went 18,667ft on a homebrew L-1500.
4grain 4800 case.Mach 2.1 and blistered the heck out of an old molded fiberglass NC.

The fins are just glued on a 3inch tube. No tip-tip, no fiberglass re-enforcement of any kind.
Just .125 in. fins.

It worked!
Click to expand...

Now THAT is really interesting.
Just seems no matter what some people think there may always be an exception.
Now, .......I gotta ask....what kinda glue was that you used?
 
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MaxQ said:
Now THAT is really interesting.
Just seems no matter what some people think there may always be an exception.
Now, .......I gotta ask....what kinda glue was that you used?
Click to expand...



West 105 & 406 colloidal silica.

I have been reading everything I can get my hands on for quite sometime about supersonic flight. All this has been done before, so there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Most research was done in the 50's for sounding rockets and other recently De-classified documents.

The plane was designed to go mach 3.4 I figured it should work for me.

My fillets are large by most standards and I try to get the Coke bottle shape previously described. I found this data under 'Icarus project" google.

Picture 3.png

Picture 4.png
 
An alternative is to gently increase the body tube diameter in front of and aft of the fins to ease the transition. Or is that basically what you described?
 
Texas Rocketman said:
Thank you......no Purple Haze is a custom-built L3 rocket......75mm engine, dual deploy
Click to expand...

Like the design a lot. Very similar to the Quest High-Q in design. Why do you refer to it as an L3 rocket? From the size (looks to be about 4" diameter x 8'), even if fiberglass it should fly nicely on a 3-4k Ns motor, well within L2 certification parameters.
 
Disaster_Guy said:
I must admit that it is one purdy rocket...

How did today's flights go?
Click to expand...

went well...lost the Aspire but it flew very well and was very very fast. It kicked into the wind and was gone out of site in 1.5 seconds. most likely supersonic had two pops........and never really saw the rocket once it left the pad....just the smoke trail........dam fast. I have video of the launch we'll post on you tube.
 
Disaster_Guy said:
Like the design a lot. Very similar to the Quest High-Q in design. Why do you refer to it as an L3 rocket? From the size (looks to be about 4" diameter x 8'), even if fiberglass it should fly nicely on a 3-4k Ns motor, well within L2 certification parameters.
Click to expand...

Gotta be Tripoli L3 to make the motors for it. You could buy motors yes, but custom made motor runs better.
 
Disaster_Guy said:
Like the design a lot. Very similar to the Quest High-Q in design. Why do you refer to it as an L3 rocket? From the size (looks to be about 4" diameter x 8'), even if fiberglass it should fly nicely on a 3-4k Ns motor, well within L2 certification parameters.
Click to expand...

flies best on Larger M class motors. A large L is minimum size that should be flown with this rocket.
 
The immediate problem I see with the Aspire is that extremely fast on the g motor, but you need a good desert dry lake bed to launch it on. We have lots of space where we're at, but when it kicked into the wind, it went over brush/cactus country and even if it had tracking in it, I'm not going out there to try & find it or to retreive the rocket. Down here, if it doesn't stick, it bites. The rattlers are bad down here right now. Definitely not the place to be walking on foot. Inaccessible by vehicles. only chance is possibly horseback.
 
Texas Rocketman said:
bathroom scales say 12.5 pounds w/o chutes and motor. Everything else is in there.
Click to expand...

That would fly great on a mid to large K then - either a 54mm 4 grain (with an adapter) or a 75mm 2 grain or so. A large M would REALLY get it moving. Actually, given the fin planform and apparent thickness (they look fairly thin), I'd be a bit careful of an M in that rocket (especially a large M) - flutter could be an issue at the speeds that would get to.

As for the Aspire, I'm sorry to hear you lost it, but glad that the flight otherwise went well. What motor did you use? As for the pops? That doesn't really mean anything as far as supersonic/subsonic flight is concerned. You can't hear the sonic boom from our rockets because it tends to propagate outwards, not downwards, and the engine noise is typically much louder than any sonic boom would be as heard from the ground. I am looking forward to the video though...
 
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Texas Rocketman said:
Gotta be Tripoli L3 to make the motors for it. You could buy motors yes, but custom made motor runs better.
Click to expand...
You don't have to be certified at all to make a motor.

Just have to be L2 or mentored by a L2 flier to fly it at a Tripoli launch. Unless, of course, it's an M or larger. But with that weight, you could easily fly it on a K. Like Chris said, a 4 grain 54mm K would give it a nice little kick.

Like, say...the K2045? :wink:



Braden
 
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