Rocketry Planet

Repeated discussion as to the validity of the National Association of Rocketry's (NAR) acceptance of Tripoli Motor Certifications finally peaked recently with a public statement by Mark Bundick, President of the NAR. The following text, taken from Bundick's public post on the rec.models.rockets UseNET newsgroup, pretty much sums it up:

"To date, no one has presented me any evidence regarding TRA motor testing being out of compliance with the provisions of applicable NFPA codes. Admittedly, I've asked for something more substantive than an email listing supposed violations. I'd like to think that's reasonable and fair; a court would demand far more than I have. In the meantime, I've done some independent research on my own.

In December, prior to the NFPA meeting in Boston, I discovered that the chairman of the TRA Motor Testing committee was to be in attendance. I alerted Jack Kane, NAR S&T Chairman, Jim Cook, NAR S&T Secretary, and NAR Vice President Trip Barber to this and asked them to determine for me whether, in their opinion:

(a) TMT motor testing was done in conformity with NFPA codes

(b) whether any motors tested by TMT and placed on the certified list had in fact experienced a catastrophic failure during testing and

(c) whether any motors on the certified list had not yet been tested.

The report I received from this team of recognized motor testing experts was that TMT testing had been conducted within the NFPA code structure, no motors had catoed during certification testing, and that all motors had been tested prior to introduction to the list. At the January NAR Board meeting, I asked again, with Jack and Trip in attendance if they were satisfied with TMT as a certifying entity, and they both said yes."

"But I made a judgement call here relative to TMT testing, I posed that judgement question to the NAR Board, and they agreed with my position. The NAR continues to accept the TMT certified motor list as it stands. Period."

"If you're going to have a serious, substantive discussion on the validity of TMT motor testing and its acceptance by the NAR Board, you'd better start coming up with a lot more substance to the evidence than what I've seen to date. Otherwise, you're saying people like Trip Barber, Jack Kane and Pat Miller are full of it, and I'm sorry, but that group wasn't born yesterday."