Lots of progress on the Martlet 1 rocket. The last few days we have bonded a lot of components, using a variety of alignment jigs machined on our CNC router.
The machined aluminium leading edges have been bonded into the C-F honeycomb that forms the fin structure, for stages 1 and 3. Together they form a lightweight fin with a sharp, high temperature leading edge, suitable for supersonic speeds. The fins have locating pins that locate into centering rings that are bonded into the rocket airframe.
The stage 3 fins are shown here gluing with a protective layer around the HD camera (white blob) – see following post.
The nosecone has also been bonded into its aluminium mating ring, using an alignment jig knocked together with a machined mating flange, a length of aluminium profile and an aluminium plate we had in the lab. After testing it on a rotating table, it’s pretty well aligned and looks great in the rocket. Just needs a lick of paint now.
The stage 1 and stage 3 fins have been tacked into the airframe, using the locating pins and a foam jig. Thie jig has fin slots milled at exactly 120 degrees to align the fins.
