Principles of Rocketry

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Principles of Rocketry

• Gareth White
• School of Operations and Information Management
• UWE Business School

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Content

• What makes a good rocket.
• Main principles
• Centre of gravity
• Centre of pressure
• Stability

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A Good Rocket
Launch Powered flight Coasting flight Apogee Parac
hute decent Gentle landing
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A Bad Rocket

• It can go wrong in so many ways..

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Key Principles

• Centre of Gravity - CofG
• The point at which the rocket balances.

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Key Principles

• Centre of Pressure - CofP
• The point at which a silhouette of the rocket
  balances.

Just like a weathervane
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Key Principles

• Stability
• A stable rocket is one where the CofG is at
  least 1 calibre in front of the CofP.

The diameter of the rocket body 1 calibre
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Summary

• Understand the terms,
• Centre of Gravity (CofG)
• Centre of Pressure (CofP)
• Calibre
• Know that stability is achieved when CofG
  precedes CofP by more than 1 calibre.
• References Further Reading
• Stine (2004), Handbook of Model Rocketry
• Van Milligan (1995), Model Rocket Design
  Construction