To determine the cause of failure of the GIGA IV flight one of the items we never knew for sure was tested. A casing was machined from the same batch of aluminium tube as flown in the GIGA IV flight. Two forward closures were installed and the casing was filled with water. A hydraulic hand
*** This is not my motor *** Static test of LD’s – 130mm monolithic 12 point star BOOSTAR-TWO. Intended as a booster for the BOOSTAR-TWO / GIGA IV rocket. 65/10/0.5 RIO propellant Motor diameter 130mm, 1880mm length. 19.1kg propellant, overall weight 34.8kg. 30g silicone APCP / 15g thermite igniter. More info can be found
Stainless steel head end igniter body from the GIGA III flight was re-furbished. For high altitude ignition the fuse head igniter was dipped in a slurry of BKNO3 viton aceton and left to dry. 3gr RIO/CuO/Mg thermite charge in heat shrink tubing as initial igniter. Booster ignition charge on top of monolithic grain consiting of
This write-up of the core burner test is condensed as it is very similar to the test performed with the hybrid finocyl / core burner test. On Friday 21st of February the KILO core burner motor was static tested on a 66/12 reload. This was motor was designed for maximum volumetric loading, lowest core mass
On Sunday 26th of January the KILO hybrid finocyl core burner motor was static tested on a 66/12 reload. This 66/12 propellant is a modified version of the Slow White propellant where the 4%Zn was replaced with 4% AP resulting in 66% AP and 12% Al at 78% solids. The result is a very docile
Some photos of the activities and casting of the hybrid finocyl core burner. Notes: Cylindrical foam core length: for simplicity 580mm / same length as the standard foam plate length. 580 is also approximately 1/2 of the liner length (but slightly less). Finocyl foam core will be trimmed to length in casting jig and also
On Friday the 13th, (an omen of bad luck?) JVDB & LD tested the KILO 4GXXL motor. This motor has an extended casing to hold more propellant when compared to the KILO 5GXL. The 4GXXL uses a Black Cat Rocketry 3″ phenolic tubing for liner and casting tubes. With its four XXL bates grains, the
“Black Cat Rocketry” liners are dimensional equivalent to PML phenolic tubes except that they come in 1225mm lengths whereas a PML tube is 916-912mm. This gives the possibility of an additional 310mm propellant without the need of splicing a liner. This BCR liner was already used in the BOOSTAR-ONE motor as a liner / casting
This post is a repository. Tried ball milling AP to get a bimodal AP particle distribution for a 80% solids (barely) pourable formula. Lortone 45C ball mill 1840gr of ceramic grinding media 20mm balls 500gr of 200um spherical AP 3 hours run time. powdered sugar like consistancy 20211017 – For BKNO3. Lortone 45C ball mill
The amateur, experimental, two stage, BOOSTAR-ONE / GIGA III rocket reached near space and was safely receoved at the LRE 2019 spring launch hosted by the kind people of the PTR. Please stay tuned for more info.