Okay, this side project was probably one of my favorites
Why?
Because I launched a freaking rocket!! Like I just find that SO cool
Here's a quick story:
I had an itch to build a rocket.
I fell down a rabbit hole and ended up in the world of high powered rocketry, a whole community I'd never even heard ofI did tons of research, downloaded sim software, and got to work!
I named my rocket COOP DOGG, because that's what one of my buddies always calls me when he sees me
So I turned the nickname into a hot dog decal and slapped it onto a rocket
The body is the hot dog, the fins are the bun, ketchup and mustard included I'm not very artsy, so this was a big step forward for me.
I just wanted to say that I calculated a hotdog to achieve 0.9 Mach and flew 4000ft in the air
I designed and fabricated the entire thing myself
Started in OpenRocket (free software, by the way), messed around with different designs until I found the one, ran some sims, and once the values checked out, brought it into SolidWorks.
That's where I did all my tolerancing and built my 3D render, because that's cool too.
Funny enough, I showed up to the launch site expecting to fly an H100.
"You should DEFINITELY do an I500T,” the guy next to me said.
It felt like an intrusive thought……
I walked up to the NAR guys:
"You're telling me you put an I500T motor in here?"
Yes. Yes I did.
While there was skepticism, it was one of the cleanest rocket launches they had ever seen. Perfectly straight, no spin, no damage, perfect recovery!