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Angelfire is based on the
parts in an
Air-X
"Black Rock" kit. It is five inches in diameter and eleven
feet long. A few design changes were made in order to build it in an
anti-zipper configuration. Construction started in February 2005 and
was finished on July 5, 2005. First flight was at
LDRS-24 on July 14,
2005
with an
M1450 motor from Cesaroni
Technologies.
The airframe and nosecone
are filament wound fiberglass and the fins are standard G10 fiberglass.
It is set up for dual deployment and sports a 98mm motor mount.
On-board electronics include an
Ozark
Aerospace ARTS recording altimeter (accelerometer + barometric) as
well as a
MissileWorks RRC2 (barometric only) altimeter.
Angelfire will also carry a
Walston radio
direction finding transmitter.
The colors are gold metallic and dark
blue metallic. |
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Length: |
11 feet, 0.25
inches |
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Diameter: |
5.15 inches |
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Weight: |
33.5 lbs
without motors |
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Motor: |
98mm motor |
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Altimeters: |
ARTS
recording altimeter plus a
MissileWorks RRC2
altimeter. |
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Locator: |
Walston radio
transmitter |
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Payload: |
None. |
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Parachute: |
SkyAngle 24"
drogue plus
SkyAngle
Cert-3 XL main parachute. |
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Built: |
Feb-July 2005.
Completed on July 5, 2005. |
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First Flight: |
July 14, 2005
at the
LDRS-24 launch in
Alberta Canada. |
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Construction: |
Body tube: G12
filament wound fiberglass
Fins: G10 fiberglass
Nose cone: G12 filament wound
fiberglass
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Simulation Results |
| Motor: M1939W |
| Maximum altitude:
15,579 feet |
| Maximum velocity:
801 MPH |
| Maximum acceleration:
9.4 g |
| Time to burnout: 6.95 sec. |
| Time to apogee:
30.4 sec.
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| Launch guide length: 96
in.
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| Velocity at launch guide
departure: 42.2 MPH |
| The launch guide was cleared at:
0.33 sec |
| Liftoff weight:
51.5 lbs |
| Simulation results
for various motors. |
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| Click on any photo below to see a larger image
of it. |
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This photo shows all of the
airframe fiberglass parts for Angelfire as of Feb 12, 2005. Ready to
start construction!
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Angelfire booster construction begins by attaching the three fins to the motor tube.
This photo shows the fins, motor tube and centering rings all held in
place in the fin alignment fixture.
View
photos of booster section construction. |
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Wet sanding the "Icing"
filler after it was applied to the fin fillets. The fin fillets for
Angelfire were shaped using a new technique. Click on the link below
to see how it was done.
View
photos of fin fillet construction. |
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The Angelfire nosecone is 30 inches
long and all but the very tip is filament wound fiberglass. It
has a G10 bulkhead at the bottom with a U-bolt for attachment to the
recovery harness.
View photos of nosecone
construction. |
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This is an end view of the
assembled altimeter bay. It shows the aft bulkhead that has a U-bolt
installed for drogue chute recovery harness attachment. The two white
pieces are 3/4" PVC pipe fittings that serve as ejection charge holders.
There is also an igniter wire seal plate unit next to each ejection charge
holder. Two 1/4" threaded rods run the length of the altimeter bay and are
used to attach the bulkhead at each end. Click on the photo for more
information about the altimeter bay.
View photos of altimeter
bay construction. |
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Angelfire carries a GPS
radio downlink transmitter inside the nosecone. The GPS
provides position and altitude updates five times per second. This
data is received and recorded on the ground. It makes finding
Angelfire very simple and it also provides some interesting data to
analyze after the flight. The GPS data can be compared to the
altimeter data to get a very good picture of how the flight performed.
View photos of GPS
radio downlink unit. |
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