Black Piper is an experiment in how hard I can push a plastic fin-tube rocket before the fins fail aerodynamically. It is a reaction to scepticism from some fliers about the strength and durabilty of this "non-traditional" construction method.
Black Piper is teh simplest, cheapest airframe I can come up with for this purpose. It uses motor eject and single deploy. The most elaborate part of the rocket is a 38mm AeroPac retainer. The rocket uses Schedule 40 ABS pipe for its fuselage and fins and regular LOC paper motor mount tube. Nose cone is a pipe fitting.
| Flight Date: | 2013-08-17 |
| Rocket Name: | Black Piper |
| Flyer's Name: | Ari Krupnik |
| Motors: | G80 |
| Launch Site: | Moffett |
| Actual Altitude: | 861 Feet |
185mph, 17.4g, 1.3s burn. 7s delay deploys just after apogee.
| Stage | Motor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Aerotech G80W |
![]() |
![]() |