The mystery of my supersonic shred overhead, solved today. 🚀 video: https://youtu.be/ZKmNSF2iuKI
From my photos, the upper half of the rocket disintegrated 2.1 seconds after launch.
The Cesaroni Aerospace K454 motor (from Canada) provided 139 lbs. of peak thrust to a 3-lb airframe, built from a lightweight composite mortar shell tube. I ran a pre-flight RockSim flight simulation that shows it pulling 20 g’s as it leaps from 0 to 946 MPH. It has a fiberglass and aluminum nose cone (plenty strong for this flight) and a HD 808 key fob camera in custom 3D-printed holder, which lost the camera on the supersonic climb (I know how to secure it next time). So…. last photo has the diagnosis.
Leave a Reply