Zachary Foster-Project Portfolio

Level 3 Rocket

Project Overview

This Project was apart of my University Honors Capstone which was in addition to my Senior Capstone for the College of Engineering.

For this project, I designed and built a Level 3 rocket to gain my Level 3 High-powered Rocket Certification. The certification process involved designing a rocket that can fly on an M impulse motor (5120 N*S and above) and successfully recover the airframe.

During the design process, I had to consider aerodynamic performance, thrust loads from the motor, manufacturability of the design, design safety, and recovery systems. Before construction could begin on the rocket, I had to go through several rounds of engineering reviews by Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) members. These TAP members have over 15 years of experience in engineering and high-powered rocket design.

Flight Simulaton

RASAero was used as the primary flight simulation software. The graph shown to the left shows the flight data recorded by an onboard flight computer and the predicted flight profile. The difference in achieved altitude and predicted altitude was about 150 ft.

The entire project report submitted as apart of my honors capstone project can be found here:

Level 3 High Powered Rocketry Certification Through Tripoli Rocketry AssociationThis paper aims to give an overview of the Level 3 certification process through the TRIPOLI Rocketry Association. This paper will also give an overview of Zachary Foster’s Level 3 Certification submission. The overview of the certification submission will include fin flutter calculations, stability calculations, descent rate calculations, flight simulations, flight results, construction overview, drawing package for the airframe, and pre-flight checklists. The results of fin flutter calculations showed that the minimum flutter speed is 1972 ft/s. The maximum flight velocity is 1309.6 ft/s. The flutter calculation has a total factor of safety of 1.5. The stability calculations show a minimum stability of 2.2 cal and a maximum stability of 4.58 cal. The descent rate calculations show a ground hit velocity of 15.75 ft/s. The flight simulations show a maximum altitude of 14787 ft.

Flight Video!

Build Pictures

External Fin Epoxy Fillets

Electronics Bay

Level 3 Rocket (left) Spaceport Rocket (right)

Fin Chamfers

Boster Section Preassembly

Fin Chamfer Side Profile

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