Aquila, named after the genus of true eagles for it’s elegant bistable fin system, is the second stage of Griffin 1; CUSF’s first project which intends to pass the karman line.
We are planning to launch Aquila in 2022 for testing. It will be powered by a Cesaroni Pro98, before it is integrated with Panthera (powered by White Giant) in the Griffin 1 launch to 150km in 2023-2024.
Our team has recently developed an initial design for Aquila, and are now carrying out extensive simulations to model its flight, including trajectory, stability, flutter, forces and heating. These are going to be popping up on the Aquila Wiki in the next few weeks, so if you’re interested in the technical details, keep an eye out on there.
Aquila is also equiped with a hypersonic recovery system designed from scratch by our recovery division, which will be showcased on our blog in coming weeks – so watch this space!