Constantine Childs Memorial Rocket

The CCMR is a high-performance vehicle specifically engineered to withstand extreme flight environments. While only being 30" long, the airframe is constructed exclusively from custom-fabricated composite materials. I manufactured the nosecone using S-Grade fiberglass sleeves, while the body tube and fins were molded using a combination of roll-wrapped and hand laid carbon fiber.

At the core of the propulsion system is a custom Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) casing. This was fabricated using a hybrid layup of braided carbon fiber sleeves and roll-wrapped fabric. This technique achieved a substantial case wall thickness of 0.105 inches, yielding a theoretical burst pressure exceeding 3500 PSI."

To test the limit of our composites, my teammate and I decided to use a specialized propellant . The motor’s aggressive thrust curve propelled the rocket to Mach 1 in roughly one second, with a sustained acceleration of over 100 Gs.

To maintain structural integrity under these forces, the airframe was designed with a fiberglass nosecone and coupler, and 1/4" fiberglass fins reinforced with a 3-layer carbon fiber layup. Since drilling holes into carbon fiber creates a weak point, the propulsion section featured a solid phenolic nozzle and forward closure, which were epoxied into place. The nosecone tip was machined from aluminum, held together the avionics bay using a threaded rod.

This project tested my theoretical and physical knowledge of composites, getting real life experience on a completely composite vehicle. Moving forward, I want to optimize the design for weight and strength, as the final design was substantially overbuilt. As a single use vehicle, optimizing for cost is a primary consideration in future designs. COPV's have the benefit of being easily manufacturable and fairly inexpensive, however, that comes with the price of reusability.

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