Tuesday 26 May 2009

new rocket dart design

This new dart design should be more reliable than the last design, now that we have added the new parachute system. The dart has been made longer to improve stability but other than that, it is still the same rocket. Another change to the booster, it is now a straight 4litre rocket with a 10mm nozzle, the problem with the cluster rocket is it couldn't hold very high pressures.
 The booster doesn't have fins because it is stable during the thrust phase of the flight and the dart separates at the end of the thrust phase, so the booster just tumbles back down to earth!

Monday 25 May 2009

Rocket Dart

We have finally launched the rocket dart but it wasn't as successful as we had hoped, we launched it three times and it crash three times. We thought it would be a good idea to use an airspeed flap for the parachute deploy but it just increased the drag and made the rocket crash. The rocket will be modified to use a tommy timer (wind up mechanism) because this is more reliable! The highest altitude recorded was only 171ft so we were very disappointed. 

Sunday 3 May 2009

Dart Prototype

We have made a prototype dart and booster. The booster is a cluster, just the same as the drop away booster rocket except the boosters don't fall off. the dart uses an airspeed flap for the recovery system so it keeps the rocket simple. The dart will only carry the alitimeter but later models might have a camera.


Details

Dart
weight:   120g
Diameter:   40mm

Booster
Capacity: 5L
Weight: 260g
nozzle:  1x  10mm   
              3x  11mm