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| ROCKET |
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2008-2009 Academic Year: Rocket design and fabrication is complete. The rocket was flight tested on March 15th, flying with the UAV onboard to an apogee of 2,000', and deploying the UAV at an altitude of 700' AGL. The UAV was successfully recovered, and no damage was suffered to the rocket. This was a successful demonstration of our concept of a Rocket Launched Reconnaissance UAV. Nominal Specifications: - 16 feet tall - 10 inches in diameter - 3.07 calibers of stability - ~70 lbs overall weight - Unique deployment scheme for safe deployment of the UAV - Has a 6'-tall payload tube to carry our UAV - Custom Carbon-Fiber fins fabricated in house - Fiberglass-on-cardboard construction - Fiberglass nosecone - A total of 4 MAWD altimeters handle the deployment - BigRedBee 441 MHz GPS locator beacon (gives coordinates to ham radio operator on the ground) - BigRedBee Beeline RF radio homing beacon in case GPS fails to lock Here's a sketch of our current rocket, drawn in ProEngineer  This graphic shows how the UAV will be packaged inside the rocket:  And here's a stability diagram from RockSim.  Our rocket has a very unique deployment schematic in order to facilitate safe deployment of the UAV. The rocket separates at apogee into two completely separate parts; the payload tube is under a 4-ft drogue, and the tail section is under a 4.8 ft drogue. At 2,000 ft, the foam sabot, carrying the UAV is deployed. Behind the sabot is a 10' main parachute for the payload. Seprately, at 500 ft agl, the second main parachute deploys, a 10'-parachute for the tailsection. The drawing below details this sequence of events: A new version of the deployment sketch, with the new altitudes displayed. We changed our UAV deployment altitude to 1,200 AGL to keep the UAV within visual range and inside of Class G airspace.  And here's a closeup drawing of the UAV and the sabot being deployed from the rocket.  Fabrication: Here's a picture of Zach with the finished Tailsection.  Here's a picture of Zach shaping the Carbon Fiber fins for the rocket, using a belt sander to trim them down to size.  Here Erin is cutting another fin down to size.  And, at last, the fins mounted to the 98mm motor tube.  Ready to fly! 
Our competition motor is the AeroTek M2400T, which will take us to an altitude of 5,280' after ballasting as appropriate. Below is the thrust curve for the M2400T. Test Launch Pictures! Prepping the UAV for flight.  Wiring up the altimeters. Kyser is wearing the face shield.  Loading the sabot (and UAV!) into the rocket.  Ready to go to the launch pad. From left to right, it's Zach Smith, Thomas Carroll (Tyler Lamb partially obscured), Matt Heller, (Will Runge partially obscured), Kyser Miree (Randy in background), Thomas Bowden, and Ty Barringer.  Carrying the rocket to the pad. Left to right, it's Thomas Bowden, Will Runge, Thomas Carroll, Zach Smith.  Erecting the rocket. In the foreground is Russ Bruner. Left to right is Rodney in orange, Tyler Lamb, Thomas Bowden, Will Runge, and Ty Barringer.  Locking the rocket into the launch position.  Checking the level.  Arming the altimeters via the screw-switches.  Installing the igniters. On the ground is Rodney McMillan (NAR II, Low Explosives User/Dealer) and Russ Bruner in the bomber jacket (NAR III).  Ready to launch.  Liftoff!  Climbing!  There goes our baby....  Getting smaller....  Just a speck now.  Apogee, waiting for the drogue parachutes to be deployed.  Parachutes! At the top is the tail section, under it's red main parachute, with the pink drogue parachute nearby; at the right is the tail section, plainly visible. Down lower is the payload section, under it's red main parachute, with the green drogue parachute down below. UAV is out of frame.  The UAV, in a dive, captured by our ace cameraman Haziq Mazlan. Randy hasn't started pulling up yet.  Randy has recovered, and flies a pass near to the Payload section and nosecone, visible at top right.  Randy is hot-dogging it now, making a pass for the camera-man.  In the foreground is Randy, flying, with spotter Kyser Miree on the lookout for stray rocket parts. The payload section is landing nearby.  The tail section comes in to a soft landing.  The mid-section follows the tail-section down.  |