RockeTiltometer inventor winner of NAR technology award

News Release by National Association of Rocketry

Friday, June 17, 2011

LUCERNE VALLEY, California USA — This year the National Association of Rocketry held their National Sport Launch on the Lucerne Dry Lake bed in Lucerne Valley on June 10-12, 2011. One of the highlights of the event was the presentation of 2011's High Power Rocketry Technology Achievement Award.

On Saturday night, during the event's awards presentation, NAR President Trip Barber presented the 2011 High Power Rocketry Technology Achievement Award to Frank Hermes for his "Attitude-Based Air-Start Ignition Control System for High-Power Rocketry" project.

The new RockeTiltometer can offer you upper-stage ignition inhibition and coast optimization capabilities for multiple stage flights based on the rocket's deviation from vertical orientation during launch.

Hermes' device, called the RockeTiltometer and featured previously on Rocketry Planet, is a product that can offer upper-stage ignition inhibition and coast optimization capabilities for multiple-stage flights based on the rocket's deviation from vertical orientation during launch. Hermes has written a series of articles on the subject that have been appearing in ROCKETS Magazine.

Each year, the NAR awards a $500 prize to an individual NAR member who has demonstrated the most outstanding innovation or accomplishment in a flight project involving high-power rocketry based on nominations submitted by individual NAR members. The award is presented at the National Sport Launch for accomplishments in the previous calendar year.

Arnie Sisca (left), Tom Erb and Steve Eves pose with a replica of a Saturn 1B rocket that they launched in Maryland in April. Photo: Bob Rossiter.

Projects eligible for consideration do not necessarily need to be new inventions, but could also involve integrating established technologies in an innovative way that advances the state of the art in the rocketry hobby. Ideally, projects should involve innovation in airframe design or construction, payloads, tracking, recovery systems or mission performance.

The RockeTiltometer is credited with salvaging the huge 1:9 scale Saturn 1B that Steve Eves built and launched on April 17th of this year, by inhibiting the upper stage ignition of the two-stage rocket when it veered off course by a preset value Eves' programmed into the unit. Upper-stage ignition inhibition is a desired feature on large projects so that unwanted flight trajectories don't produce undesired results.

"When Bob Utley of ROCKETS Magazine contacted me regarding a new project Steve was working on, I was immediately interested," Hermes stated. "Steve had asked Bob if he was aware of anything available that would help him with his flight safety preparations. Bob remembered that I had been working on a device to measure the tilt attitude of a rocket’s flight path. In the event of an adverse attitude, such a tilt meter could be used to abort an air-started motor."

The end result was a success for Hermes' product, and even though the huge Saturn 1B failed to stage, Eves considered it a successful flight anyway, since the rocket's control systems had worked as designed.

Dirk Gates, brother of former TRA board member Erik Gates, is working to complete a project the two brothers started together a number of years ago. The 1:10 scale Saturn 1B will be a worthy recipient for the advanced technology of a product such as the RocketTiltometer.

Another large scale Saturn 1B is also slated to use the RockeTiltometer possibly this year or next at the national experimental rocket launch of the Tripoli Rocketry Association held on the Black Rock Desert north of Gerlach, Nevada. Dirk Gates, brother of former TRA board member Erik Gates who lost his life in a tragic work accident, is working to complete a project the two brothers started together a number of years ago. The 1:10 scale Saturn 1B will feature five P motors and four N motors in the bottom stage and one P motor and four N motors in the upper stage, a worthy recipient for the advanced technology of a product such as the RocketTiltometer.

Nominations for the NAR High Power Rocketry Technology Achievement Award are judged by a committee of high-power rocket fliers and technical experts established by the NAR High Power Rocketry Sport Services Committee, chaired by Art Upton. The deadline for nominations for the 2012 award is February 1, 2012. Interested individuals can read more about the award as well as Hermes' technical report about the RockeTiltometer on the NAR's High Power Rocketry Technology Achievement Award web page at:

http://www.nar.org/hpcert/hpraward.htm