I’ve been building and launching rockets for over two decades. My interests have changed over time. Like many rocketeers, I started with small rocket kits and progressed to larger more complex rockets. I experimented with electronic deployment of parachutes, multi-stage rockets, payload carriers, supersonic flight and other techniques.
More recently I’ve been experimenting with rocket planes. These vehicles launch as a rocket powered plane then fly back to the launch point as radio-controlled glider. They combine my interest in rocketry and flying radio controlled aircraft, and offer some interesting technical and constructional problems.
Outside the hobbyist environment I’ve been very interested in the science, engineering and safe operation of rockets.
In 2005 I presented a paper at the British Rocketry Oral History Project (BROHP) conference on a wind drift model for rockets descending under parachute [1]. The aim of this model was to estimate the touchdown point of a rocket as it descended through the atmosphere, a non-trivial problem as wind speed and direction change with altitude. This model was later adopted in a whole-flight model by another researcher [2].
The empirical development of safety processes in the hobbyist world sparked my interest in developing a full risk analysis for rocketry. My rationale was that the identification of all risks and their consequences gives a solid basis for developing safe practice.
A risk analysis requires that the likelihood and consequences of each risk is known. The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) in the USA has done some interesting modelling of the probability of a person being struck by a rocket [3], but no-one had addressed the type or severity of the resulting injuries. This resulted in a study which addressed the likely injuries caused by different types of impact by a range of rocket sizes which I’m considering submitting to a journal.
As a STEM ambassador I’ve worked with many schools, youth organisations and universities to promote rocketry, It’s fun for the students but is also a relatively cheap way to reinforce some basic scientific principles. This work exposed a need for a guide for teachers and youth leaders to safely launch rockets, so I wrote the ‘Best Practice Guide’ [4].
In 2019 I started to help the University of South Wales rocketry group, and was appointed as a Visiting Professor. Working with students on undergrad and postgrad engineering problems in rocketry is very satisfying. Working within the academic environment requires a very structured and formal approach to safety issues which is helping to refine some of my earlier work on safety processes.