R and D Projects From The N.A.R.

Drag of Launch Lugs, Rail Buttons, and Launch Guides (26Mb PDF) - If you could optimize the design of a launch lug, what would it look like? How do launch lugs compare to rail buttons and rail guides? Written by Tim Van Milligan. 2017 R&D report presented at NARCON in Herdon, Virginia. 

Effect of Blade Angle-of-Attack on the performance of a Gyrocopter - By Ashley Van Milligan. 2015 R&D report that won 1st place in A-Division at NARAM-57.

Effect of Blade Twist on the performance of a Gyrocopter rocket - By Allison Van Milligan. 2015 R&D report. Essentially, the root end of the blade is at a negative angle-of-attack, and the tips of the blades are at zero degrees relative to the rotation. Check out how much difference it made, and how to build twist into your competition rocketry helicopter blades.

Laser Etching an Airfoil into Balsa Wood - By Tim Van Milligan 2015 R&D report presented at NARAM-57. This is the lazy man's way of carving an airfoil into a fin or a glider wing using a laser-engraver. 

Drag of Tube Fins (6.7 MB PDF) - Tube fins are ring-shaped fins that give a unique appearance to the rocket. This R&D report by Allison Van Milligan measures the drag force on various size tube fins. All models were tested in the Low Speed Wind Tunnel at the United States Air Force Academy. You can also download the raw data files (here) so you can further dive into this unique project.

Drag of Nose Cones - Which shape really works best at low speeds? This R&D report by Ashley Van Milligan looks at nine different nose cones shapes, and compares their drag forces that were measured in a low speed wind tunnel at the United States Air Force Academy. You can also download the raw wind tunnel data here (zipped file containing the various spreadsheets). See the report on Tube-Fin drag (above) to see how to decipher the data and convert it to drag forces. This report uses the Science Fair Nose Cone assortment, plus the PNC-24A nose cone, and the VNC-24B as the starting point.

Development of Flexible Foam Egg Protectors - An R&D report entered in NARAM-55 (2013) by Tim Van Milligan explains how the molded foam egg protectors are made.

Tape Wars - Which type of tape works best for masking a model rocket? An R&D report by Allison Van Milligan. In this report, the Author tested eight types of tape, ranging from cheap cellophane tape, to expensive automobile pin-striping tape to see which gave the best line, and was easiest to work with. This is a high-resolution PDF file because you'll want to see the photos of the painted models. 61MB pdf

Determing the Drag Coefficient of A model Rocket Using Accelerometer Based Payloads. An R&D report by Tim Van Milligan. This report shows how to use a recording altimeter (which includes an accelerometer sensor), to accurately measure the Cd of a model rocket. What used to take dozens of test flights can now be one with one rocket launch. Download size: 1.8 MB pdf. This is a continuation of the Peak-of-Flight Newsletter #303.

Spinning Parachutes: Do they slow the descending rate? An R&D report by Allison Van Milligan (sixth grade). According to the Parachute Manual, a spinning parachute should fall slower than a traditional model rocket chute. This report shows how to make the spinning chute, and how to make an accurate comparison compared to a normal chute. 508K pdf

Using Video To Measure Position, Orientation, and Speed of a Model Rocket. An R&D report by Tim Van Milligan. In this report, you'll learn how to set up a situation where you can use your inexpensive video camera to measure the speed of your rocket. This might be the only way to accurately measure the speed of a supersonic rocket. It makes a great classroom project for teachers, as all the students can analyze the same data to come up with the speed and acceleration of any rocket. 6.9MB pdf

Barrowman's Original NARAM R&D Report All the other documents that state the Barrowman equations reference this important document. However, they are all missing one important piece of information that this report contains.

"A Design Procedure for Maximizing Altitude Performance." This is an R&D report in PDF format. Written by Ed LaBudde, it explains how to extend the Barrowman Equations to high angles-of-attack. It gives some good information on Dynamic Stability procedures. (College level)

Extending the Barrowman Method for Large Angles of Attack by Ed LaBudde. March 1999. There is also an excel spreadsheet that goes through some sample equations here, which is why a zip file.

"Comparison of Barrowman Stability Analysis with Wind Tunnel Data" By Tom McAtee. Does the Barrowman CP method stack up to real NASA wind tunnel data? This report answers that question.

"Development of the Fly-Away Rail Guides" by Tim Van Milligan. This report took 2nd place (C-Division) at NARAM-52. It describes how the Fly-Away Rail guides were created initially, and what improvements were made on them to make them easier to build for modelers, and to increase their effectiveness in making rockets fly straighter and higher. 12.1MB pdf

"Comparison Of The Number Of Parachutes Versus Descent Rate" by Allison Van Milligan. This research report looks into how increasing the number of parachutes in a model (but keeping the surface area the same) affects the descent speed of a rocket. It is a great model to follow for people performing a science fair projects, because it uses of the scientific method of isolating one variable (as performed by a fourth grade student). Awarded 4th place at NARAM-52 in A-Division. 2.2MB pdf

"Numerical Methods for Model Rocket Altitude Simulation - A comparative Study of Accuracy and Efficiency" By Ken J. Karbon. This report describes and compares the different methods of computing rocket altitude: Explicit Euler and 4th Order Runge-Kutta. Included is sample Fortran source code. (College Level) 1.26 Meg Download. PDF format.

The Effectiveness of Turbulators on Egglofting Rockets by Tim Van Milligan. Do turbulators make blunt rockets fly higher? That is the question asked in this R&D report from NARAM-31.

Calculating the Rate of Descent of a Helicopter Duration Rocket by Tim Van Milligan. This report describes the factors that contribute to the efficiency of a helicopter recovery rocket, and how they might be optimized for longer descent rates.

The Development of Lightweight Airframe Components From Drafting Vellum and Mylar Film
by Andrew D. Tomasch. NARAM-40 R&D project. (2.1 Meg pdf document.)

Triangulation: A Rocketry Recovery Aid by David Shenosky (300K pdf download.)

GPS Recovery Technique For Rocketry - by Michael Konshak. How to set up a Garmin Dog Tracker in your high power rocket so that you can get your expensive rocket back after a really long flight.

https://www.astre471.org/jeff/rocketry.html A listing of links to several other R&D reports from members of the National Association of Rocketry.

http://www.nar.org/NARTS/ The NAR has several collections of R&D reports available in their catalog. Lots of excellent reading on a variety of subjects. If your personal rocketry library doesn't contain these booklets, it is incomplete.

http://www.interactiveinstruments.com/pdfs/28.pdf Model rocket drag analysis using a wind tunnel to make measurements(high school level).

Level 3 Certification Package (9MB pdf document) - When a rocketeer is ready to fly their large certification rocket, one of the pre-flight requirements is to present a certification package. This packet of information details the anticipated performance of the rocket, as well as how the rocket was constructed. This is the packet of information that Tim used when he went for his certification on July 18, 2015. The rocket is called the "Lifeproof" rocket, becasue it carried eight Galaxy-6 cell phones in cases provided by LifeProof. It was a promotional video that can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ZMkXky8TY

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