B. Airframe
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The design of the airframe
is simple and intended to be purely functional. The rocket is approximately
9.5' long and the fins will be just larger than minimum for stability.
The fins are trapezoidal, angled slightly forward to help avoid landing
damage. The intention is to produce a simple, reliable, high-performance
rocket. A rocket must maintain its rigidity in flight. Any tendency to
bend will be magnified in flight resulting in a kinked tube and likely
a failed flight. Holding the rocket horizontal by its tail section and
any curvature in the rocket will need additional reinforcing of the airframe
with coupling tubing being inserted and epoxied in place. This should not
be a concern utilizing filament wound fiberglass tubing, See the overall
sketch below. Note that this is a custom design, although everything was
done according to standard practice, and will be named "Miss Fire."
The airframe tubes are 4" Pure Filament Wound Fiberglass tubes (100% compatible with Hawk Mountain Tubing) from Giant Leap. Construction uses mechanical means wherever possible and the adhesive used is West Systems epoxy (mostly using 404 high-density filler). The motor mount is attached to the airframe with five 3/8" centering rings, which are screwed as well as bonded to the airframe. The fins are triple laminated 0.125" G-10 fiberglass that has been covered with carbon fiber cloth to add weight and stiffen the fin to prevent fin shudder. They are attached to the motor mount tube with epoxy and reinforced with laminated fiberglass. The motor mount itself is a single 76-mm Pure Filament Wound Fiberglass tube (this is not a clustered flight). The flier, (with suggestions) will perform all construction. Safety: There should be no dangers
due to design since the rocket is simple and standard. Poor airframe construction
could lead to a shred, but the materials and techniques employed are ones
known to be standard for high power rocketry.
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