The Reaction Research Society held our monthly meeting on September 9th. It was the first in-person meeting in 31 months We met at the front office of the Compton/Woodley Airport at our usual starting time of 7:30pm. This was a new location for us and we are grateful to the staff of Los Angeles County for their hospitality.
We still held our teleconference which continues to allow our members living far from the city to join us. We will stay at this location for the next two more meetings to decide if this will be our permanent location.
September meeting agenda
Review of recent MTA/rocket events:
Upcoming MTA events
Bathroom work to continue this month
New concrete launch pad
USC RPL testing campaign
Catching-up in person
This is a placeholder until the full meeting minutes can be transferred.
Our next meeting will be on October 14 at the same location at the front office of the Compton/Woodley Airport. We will meet every 2nd Friday of each month. Contact the RRS secretary for information.
By Dave Nordling, President, Reaction Research Society
The RRS held a launch event on Saturday, June 4, 2022, at our Mojave Test Area (MTA). I was the pyro-op in charge. Winds were brisk and steady, but still under the 25 MPH limit. We had two operations that day.
The first was the UCLA Senior Capstone project led by Professor Brett Lopez. This quarterly class has seniors build and balance their own rockets from scratch. They load F-sized motors and fly them at the end of the quarter to prove their team’s skills in flight.
The UCLA students gather their materials in the propellant loading area.
Secondly, RRS member Wolfram Blume returned to the MTA with the latest rebuild of the Gas Guzzler. He had concerns about flying in the strong winds that day so he limited his work to testing the staging system with both halves on the 1515 rail. Bill Inman and new member, Dale, offered their assistamce in positioning the rocket on the rail.
Dale, Wolfram and Bill Inman
Bill Inman and Dale assisted Wolfram in trying out the new staging system in the Gas Guzzler. The old system (e.g., last December) was a hassle and required assembling the upper stage (main body tube, cowling, nose cone) on the rail with a screw driver and a step ladder. The mating of the booster thrust rods into the upper stage was very difficult. So after December, he redesigned and rebuilt the thrust rods and the staging system. The result was a successful design. The new system is fairly easy to stage on the rail, does not require any assembly (with the ever-present danger of losing small screws) and does not require a ladder. Wolfram feels good about this system for future launches.
The Gas Guzzler during its fit check on 6/4/2022
Wolfram doesn’t think he’ll make it back to the MTA until the summer heat is over. His goals for the summer both involve the fuel system:
The flameholder is the ramjet needs to ignite every time.
The ramjet slows down very quickly after stage separation (25m/sec/sec = 60mph/sec), so the ramjet must ignite within less than 2 seconds after stage separation; less than 1 second would be better.
Using the 270-volt, 3-phase electricity at Wolfram’s laboratory, he can run a 20hp air blower which can mimic the air flow at stage separation with a K-motor in the booster (175 m/sec). The blower can be run higher to mimic stage-separation flight speeds of about 250 m/sec which is just below the separation speed of an L-motor in the booster (280-300 m/sec).
Wolfram’s workshop is good for the tuning and testing the flameholder. but running the main burner would require returning to the MTA. The main fuel flow could be tuned using water. After the summer’s heat is over, he will return to the MTA and finish testing the parachute system. The first powered flight of the ramjet with a short – 5 second burn is under discussion.
This short event was also a good time to clean up the site a bit. The society has big plans for the summer including some much anticipated facility upgrades.
The next monthly meeting will be June 10th (2nd Friday of each month) by teleconference. Contact the RRS secretary for details.
by Dave Nordling, President, Reaction Research Society
The RRS held a launch event at the Mojave Test Area on Saturday, 4/2/2022. Larry Hoffing was our pyrotechnic operator in charge. It was a very pleasant day with low winds for most of the day.
The sign arch welcomes people to the Mojave Test Area
It was also the first time in a long time that all four members of the executive council were present at the same event. We took the opportunity to capture the moment in a photograph.
The executive council for 2022; Keith Yoerg (secretary), Dave Nordling (president), Larry Hoffing (treasurer), Frank Miuccio (vice president)
The primary project for that day was the launch of 15 Baby Bertha rockets made by the students of Nickerson Gardens over the six-week educational program the society held with the support of LAPD CSP. The rockets give the students a tangible sense of accomplishment and seeing them in flight from the MTA gives them good memories of what hard work can do.
The newest armada of Baby Bertha’s ready for flight.Students wait in the Dosa Building before the launch.The launch rails made ready for the event.
There was an RRS standard alpha made for this occassion which flew at the end. It was prepared by our experienced pyro-op, Larry Hoffing, and made an impressive finish to this school event.
Larry Hoffing (right) trains his colleague in the assembly and loading of a micrograin alpha rocket.Larry Hoffing oversees the launch rail with Keith Yoerg for an alpha launch.
Secondarily, we had a few members of the USC RPL team out at our site to begin repairs of the concrete pad area used in their static fire tests. Removal of the male anchor bolts in USC’s custom mounting pattern were finally distorted too much to be useful. They were a frequent tripping hazard and their removal was a blessing.
USC RPL cinducts repairs of the vertical test stand pad.USC RPL team at work making improvements at the MTA.
Also, the USC RPL team made several contributions to improving the MTA site with earthwork, brush clearance, and just good old fashioned hard work. We’re grateful to them coming out to help keep the site in good shape,
Earthwork in progress to backfill the erosion.View from the blockhouse of the Peregrine rocket ready for launch.
The last portion of the day was spent launching a few more model and high-power rockets before the winds became too high. We used the time to plan our next event and rearranged our materials in our new storage container.
Our next monthly meeting is Friday, April 8th. Contact the RRS secretary for information.
