Aquila

Originally designed as the upper stage of a two-stage space-shot, Aquila was designed for hypersonic flight after separating from a liquid first stage and propelling to 150km. After feasibility studies demonstrated the benefits of a single-stage approach, Aquila was converted into its own project with a small but impressive launch to 3km in order to test it’s novel hypersonic recovery system consisting of a 100ft streamer to slow its descent from apogee and allow its main parachute to deploy safely at a much lower altitude. The team focused on preparing for this with trajectory simulations, OpenFOAM CFD simulations for parachute design and geometry checking via Pflanz method.

Aquila was launched in September 2023 at Friends of Amateur Rocketry Mojave, and had a successful flight until the recovery system failed to deploy. The first launch for the society since 2017, Aquila provided valuable experience for the team in preparation for the future.