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Home / Archives / News Archive 2000 / Sheffield Rocket Association sets new UK altitude record
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Sheffield Rocket Association sets new UK altitude record |
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2000 Archived News by Sheffield Rocket Association
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Friday, March 24, 2000 |
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LINCOLNSHIRE, England UK — Sheffield Rocket Association's Thunder-n-Lightning reaches 14,398 feet - announced live on the BBC's Tomorrow's World.
On Saturday, the 11th March, 2000, three teams set out to break the UK amateur rocket altitude record of 14,006 feet previously held by Ben Jarvis of the MARS Rocketry Society.
In conjunction with the BBC's Tomorrow's World - "Live Lab" and the United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA), the Sheffield Rocket Association, MARS and the West Lancs Rocket Society aimed to be the first teams to push the 2 year old UK altitude record beyond 14,000 feet live on British TV as part of the National Science week. For the winners, the National Space Science Centre commissioned a new trophy !
On Wednesday, the 22nd March, live on Tomorrow's World's Live Lab, the Sheffield Rocket Association were crowned the new UK altitude record holders with a successful flight and recovery of their rocket "Thunder-n-Lightning" to 14,398 ft AGL.
After weeks of preparation up to the launch day, the teams converged on a remote farm land site in Lincolnshire, UK on the 11th of March. With the BBC TV cameras in place to record the altitude attempts, the three teams made their final preparations. SRA's heavily modified two-stage Thunder-n-Lightning would be powered by a K700 to J570 motor combination. West Lanc's went for a two stage Quantum Leap armed with a K550 to K185 long burn. MARS opted for a "boosted dart" powered by a K700 first stage and a minimum diameter "dart" like coasting second stage.
The time came to launch!
SRA's Thunder-n-Lightning went first. ...5.4.3.2.1 ignition ! The rocket thundered into the sky. Four seconds later the second stage kicked in and the rocket accelerated to over 1000 mph. About a minute later the booster stage could be seen descending under it's parachute but the sustainer was no where to be seen. Shortly after the RF tracker picked up a signal from the second stage. This mean all the rockets systems had functioned correctly and a good fix was taken on it's bearing.
The other two teams launched their rockets. West Lanc first then MARS. Two superb flights ! Now all we had to do was to find the rockets and see who had achieved the highest altitude !
Within 1/2 an hour we had found the booster section with the aid of the RF tracker. Now to find the second stage ! Switching the receiver to the sustainer's frequency we set off in a direction in line with the boosters landing point and the launch site. After about 10 mins walk the RF tracker burst into life, we had a fix ! and there it was completely undamaged with the Transolve P2 altimeter bleeping out the altitude.
The altimeter was carefully removed from the rocket and in front of the TV cameras the altitude was read off. 14,398 ft a new UK Amateur Altitude Record !
Now the long wait to see if any of the other teams had recovered their rockets. News came in that both boosters had been recovered but no second stages yet. Time went on and as darkness descended there was still no sign of the other rockets. The moon rose into the night sky and the search was aborted. MARS and West Lancs teams retired ready for the continued search the following day.
Both teams searched all Sunday morning but to no avail and at 1.00 pm SRA's Thunder-n-Lightning was declare the winner and new UK altitude record holders. The following Tuesday news came of a discovery, the West Lancs Quantum Leap had been found. The main chute had opened at apogee and the rocket had drifted over 5 miles down wind and it had achieved an altitude of 13,800 feet, just short of the old record set by MARS. Alas, MARS's boosted dart was never seen again and we will probably never know its fate !
For more information visit the SRA's website at http://www.cruiserd.demon.co.uk |
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