AE 1601 Tips

How to make a great rocket and glider at the AMS for your project!

Rocket Project

Design

1. Start early, and iterate! Your first design you make in OpenRocket will likely not be the final design

2. Weigh everything, and take advantage of the mass override tool in OpenRocket

3. OpenRocket will overshoot, usually by around 20-30 ft

4. There is a line between being overstable and understable

   1. Ideally, you want to target between 1.5 and 2.5 cal of stability

      1. If it's overstable, the smallest gust of wind will cause the rocket to turn into the wind, and if it's understable, it will wobble when flying

   2. It is best to stay on the side of being overstable though

5. Think about 3D printing as needed: it is not the smartest idea to 3D print your entire rocket, and you should be using a combination of other materials

6. In OpenRocket, pay attention to surface smoothness. Most 3D printed parts are what's considered "rough," and the tubes themselves are "unfinished."

Example (note this is purely an example, and a slightly modified version is what flew):

Building

1. The minor details do count, and do make a significant difference on the performance of your rocket, so be careful and precise

2. Watch your fin alignment -> it may be advisable to 3D print or build some kind of mechanism to ensure your fins are properly spaced apart

   1. Otherwise the rocket will rotate in flight and may even turn in the air

3. Don't jam things together, if you're rough with it, the rocket's upper section may not pop off, causing it to crash

4. A streamer is enough, as the rockets are going to fairly low heights, there's no need to overcomplicate it and add a parachute or additional streamer

Final Checklist for Flight (Courtesy: Dr. Griendling)

42KB

AE 1601 Rocket Pre-Flight Checklist.pdf

pdf

Glider Project

Design

1. There is a lot to think about here, so break it down if you're not familiar with gliders. Notably, there are these factors:

   1. Wing design and shape

   2. Length of the shaft

   3. Center of gravity

2. I would strongly recommend looking at work done by hobbyists on glider design, as they are rich and can tell you a lot

3. Stability also plays a role in the glider flight, the center of pressure is usually close to what is called the "quarter chord point" on the airfoil, and so you want your center of gravity to be ahead of that

Building

1. Iterate, iterate, and iterate! Stuff will break, especially the tips of the wings, so don't be surprised if you have to start from scratch as needed

2. Try to build the glider symmetrically, so that way it doesn't inherently tilt on liftoff

3. Test, test, and test! The Weber courtyard is a common place to test glider projects, and do so in a way that doesn't endanger others

4. Experiment! That's what makes this project the more hands-on, you can log many test flights before the final competition, unlike the rocket project

5. Note that when you fly outdoors, due to the wind, you will need to add more weight on the nose compared to if you were flying indoors

My example (met the requirements, but did not do well in the competition):

Edit Log:

Karthik Shaji: 9/26/2024

Karthik Shaji: 10/6/2024