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Record-Breaking Model Rocket Launch Set For April 25
darkjohnson writes with this impressive excerpt from Rocketry Planet: "On April 25, 2009, history will be made. At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor."
"On April 25, 2009, history will be made. At Higgs Farm in Price, Maryland, Steve Eves will enter the history books as the person who flew the largest model rocket in history. The rocket will weigh over 1,600 pounds, it will stand over 36 feet tall and it will be powered by a massive array of nine motors: eight 13,000ns N-Class motors and a 77,000ns P-Class motor."
The BATF tried to stop all amateur rocketry beyond the toy size but they lost the lawsuit. A Federal judge ruled that solid rocket fuel of the type used by these rockets is not an explosive.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I'm not a pilot, nor a military person, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_use_airspace may give some clues. Basically, as told to me the Navy had some airspace that was "theirs" and didn't take kindly to the FAA trying to tell them what they could do with it.
The only thing I would say that goes against your point is that this is a 1/10th scale model of a Saturn V. That's enough in my mind to call it a model.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I have a hard time seeing how something larger and more powerful than most of Goddard's devices can be called a "model". Amateur-built, sure. But not a "model".
sPh
Did you bother to click to the article? It's a model of a Saturn V. A real Saturn V is ten times taller. So, yes, it's a 1:10 scale model of a frelling HUGE rocket, and is therefore quite large on an absolute scale, but it is still a model.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Maybe the biggest in the US, but Top Gear launched a model space shuttle with a car on it a few years ago....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b4WzWFKQ20
The US Federal Aviation Administration rules relevant to unmanned rocketry are in CFR Title 14, 101.21 to 101.27. In 101.22 one finds the definitions of "Model Rocket", "High-Power Rocket", and "Advanced High-Power Rocket" relevant in the United States:
So according to this taxonomy, Mr. Eves' rocket is an advanced high-power rocket, and is not a model rocket.
The propellant formulations (Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant--APCP) used for high power model rockets are essentially the same as the one used in the solid rocket boosters that lift the Space Shuttle.
Granted, model rockets don't use LOX. LH2 or hypergolics, but some of us are playing around with hybrids like Rutan used on SpaceShipOne.
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Well, with a maximum altitude under 5000 feet, this guy's not going for performance, he's just putting a scale model up in the air high enough to say it flew. High performance means high propellant mass fractions (where up to 90% of the launch weight is propellant) and almost certainly multiple stages. This rocket has an 18% propellant fraction and is single stage. It will look very cool coming off the launchpad and that's all it needs to do.
The government gets interested when you start heading for 50,000 feet, 100,000 feet, or higher. The other thing the government gets interested about is guidance systems on rockets. If it's a self-stabilizing rocket that goes up and down with no guidance system, just follow the FAA rules to make sure there are no aircraft in your flight envelope and the government doesn't really care.
The FAA has no authority over MILITARY AIR SPACE.
The FAA has absolute authority over all domestic airspace. Period. Special-Use Areas are only designated for the awareness of civilian pilots... so they know they may be flying in the presence of military jets and to avoid the area if possible. Special-Use Areas are also often subject to advisory times where there will be excessive activity, or dangerous training procedures that require a buffer zone, during which the FAA (not the Navy) will close the airspace to non-emergency civilian aircraft.
Now, that's not all to say that the FAA use their absolute authority to be dicks to the military. The Navy still pretty much gets to do what they want in their SUAs and MOAs, and the FAA will still probably release a NOTAM about a model rocket launch and whatnot if the Navy tells them to..... but if the FAA wanted to be dicks and disallow it, they very well could.