For Buzz Aldrin’s birthday, it seemed like a good time to do some supersonic tests of our 3D-printed fin cans for minimum-diameter golf-ball rockets (taking H to J motors).
The first flew straight as an arrow, popping from 0 to Mach 1.25 in 2 seconds, and soaring out of sight a mile up. The second flight, seen here, whipped the pad so powerfully (pulling 69 G’s) that two of the four aluminum legs snapped off! I printed the launch lugs in one of the virtual fin fillets, and that ripped one of the fins in half on the pad, inducing a corkscrew flight out and over the Ritz golf course. (For the future, I will use a beefy 1″ metal launch rail).
I got a call from the golf course superintendent, who found the rocket, and so we got everything back for forensic analysis. We returned their golf ball somewhere, and as a tribute, we count down 10,9,8,7,6,5, Fore!
1,286 MPH this time. With the single use J270, Rocksim shows it hitting Mach 1.9 and 8,568 ft.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAUsgZ9rd2Q&hd=1
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