Abstract

This is a joint IET /I Mech E/RaES event

The talk will cover various rocket projects, through a history of Falcon. From the initial start as an amateur rocket project, through the BLOODHOUND SSC land speed record project and finally a summary of current developments and exciting new technologies, which are being tested at our Westcott facility.

Daniel was born in Manchester in 1984 and has been interested in rockets from an early age. At 10 he received a model rocket kit, and then launched hundreds of model rockets and then decided that he wanted to make much larger rockets to try to reach higher altitudes. In 1995 he and his grandfather Sid Guy founded The Falcon Project. Between 1996 and 1998 they built and launched a number of rockets from the army ranges at Otterburn, Northumberland. The capabilities of the rockets quickly exceed the maximum permitted altitude for launches from Otterburn, which was 20,000 feet. The early rockets used commercially available rocket motors, however we realised that to achieve our objective of reaching higher altitudes we would need to manufacture our own rocket motors. The Falcon Project set up a manufacturing facility in the US and began manufacturing solid propellant rocket motors for commercial and military applications. We also established research programmes into liquid and hybrid propellant rocket engines. The Falcon Project Ltd now designs and manufactures custom solid, liquid and hybrid propellant rocket systems at facilities in the US and UK, with applications ranging from mine disposal and target drones to high altitude research rockets. My main experience is in rocket motor design, propellant chemistry and internal ballistics. He has worked with a wide range of explosives, oxidizers and binders and has been involved with theoretical work, modelling, formulation development, manufacture of propellants and explosives and trials work.