Thread: High Power Rockets

Another hobby is building high power rockets. (yes this is legal) :-)







Tripoli Rocketry Association

Neat,can they be recovered after Launch? Wellcome to SRP

Yes. At this level rocketry starts costing "real" money!

For the OP...Was the pic at Balls 2013?

That is pretty cool, off to google I go.

What fuels do you use solid only or liquid and hypergolic?

Yes this was at Balls.. top two are Balls 2009.. Bottom one is from Balls 2011 when it flew for the Carmack 100k challenge. I built this rocket again and had it at Balls this year as well but was unable to fly it due to my GPS transmitter failed so I would not be able to recover it with a predicted altitude North of 100,000 ft AGL. The rocket is a clone of a Super Loki Dart with 36 lbs of propellant in it. The propellant is APCP (Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant) Ammonium Perchlorate is the oxidizer, HTPB (Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) is the binder. It is a room temperature curable liquid rubber along with a few other ingredients to adjust the burn characteristics and physical properties of the finished propellant. Yes the rockets are fully recoverable. I'll fly this rocket next at Balls this year. Balls is the name of one event where people go to fly these rockets, the club works with the FAA to secure the airspace and have permission to fly these rockets.

For a little perspective, I am 6'7" tall and everything olive drab below the white area is filled with propellant.

That's nice fuel, I don't really remember but haven't AP like 20 different levels of burn rate?
I do remember it could play tricks on you if you weren't careful.
You don't use any metals like Al in it?

Originally Posted by Tripoli3

For a little perspective, I am 6'7" tall and everything olive drab below the white area is filled with propellant.

Welcome to the forum!

Sheesh, and I thought I was a poet trapped in the body of a wrestler at 6'4"...me and some friends used to hack around with the rocket kits, smaller one with the D engines, they were an awful lot of fun!

So is the launch area free of airplane routes or do you have to let the local airports know you're launching...I remember we had to if we had any rockets that could get up above certain level.

No, AP is has a very consistent burn rate but you do have to characterize every formula for burn rate vs pressure. AP is what the shuttle used. Yes I do use metals as well. AL and Mg in this case but fairly low percentages. You may be confusing AP with potassium perchlorate.