Photo Maurice "Moe" Bertrand


                           



E-mail The Rocket Doc

Brad "The Rocket Doc" Evans
Superstition Spacemodeling Society
Phoenix, AZ
NAR #88880 Level 3
TRA #13578 Level 3

The National Association of Rocketry
Tripoli Rocketry Asociation
The Superstition Spacemodeling Society

Level 3 Certification
November 27, 2010
The AGM-78 Raytheon "Standard Missile"

Rainbow Valley, AZ
L3CC: Terry O'Brien
Witness: Gerald "Skippy" Meux, Jr

Motor:
Aerotech M1297 W



                  
                    Photo Maurice "Moe" Bertrand
   

Tim Van Milligan of Apogee Components
Colorado Springs, CO

           
            Photo Maurice "Moe" Bertrand

"Whatagooboy" Two-Stage Cluster
Spring Blast
April 29, Rainbow Valley, AZ

Photo Maurice "Moe" Bertrand


Photo Maurice "Moe" Bertrand


Photo James Donald


Photo James Donald
 
Flight  Summary

The 14.5 foot rocket was 7.7 inches in diameter and ~80lbs on the pad. The booster with its central CTI L1030RL and outboard four CTI J410RLs (all ignited simultaneously)took the rocket to 1300ft in 3.8 seconds. (The Rocksim prediction was 1174ft in 3.7 seconds.) A Featherweight Raven2 was used for sustainer ignition with redundancy (Thanks to Scott Hertel for that recommendation!). While the rocket did significantly weathercock right off the pad, it just made the Raven parameters for sustainer ignition. The limits were 1200ft within 5 secs, pressure decreasing. At booster burnout, velocity was 490ft/sec (predicted was 430ft/sec). The sustainer CTI L990BS ignited 5.1 seconds after engine cutoffs, and the short delay of ~1.3 seconds made it easier to see the air start. The booster separation depended on drag. However, to assure separation, a Missile Works Pet2+ timer in the interstage coupler set off a charge 0.1 seconds after motor burnouts, and Skippy Meux reported seeing that. The Pet2+ also set off a charge to separate the interstage coupler and to deploy the 120" Spherachute booster parachute. The back up was motor deployment from two of the J410s each 1 second apart starting 1 second after the Pet2+ charge. That accounted for all the smoke seen with booster separation. The booster was recovered with minimal airframe damage.

The sustainer reached a maximum velocity of 720ft/sec (predicted was 707ft/sec) and a maximum altitude of 5530ft in 20.4 secs (predicted was 7214ft in 21.7 secs). The altitude prediction was off by ~1700ft because of the angle of flight.

Finally, Missile Works RRC2mini altimeters set off the charges for the Rocketman 48" drogue with a 1 second delay back up. However, drogue deployment also cause the 9 lb nosecone to separate by inertia (even with 4 x 4-40 nylon sheer pins). So the 168" Spherachute main deployed at apogee as well. The sustainer was recovered 0.8 miles from the pad without damage almost 7 minutes after launch. All charges fired.

Video
(Very brief before the camera fell off at lift-off)