Hawthorne

I am still interested in high altitude projects, so I began designing this two-stage rocket in early 2005. The idea is to use a 98mm diameter "N" class motor in the booster and a smaller 54mm diameter motor in the second stage, or "sustainer", if you will. Both stages are minimum diameter, meaning that the airframe is just big enough to hold the motor with no wasted frontal area. Another goal for this project is to fly higher than my previous best, about 45,000 feet.

The name Hawthorne continues the "birthplace of" theme I started with Project:Tupelo. Tupelo was the birthplace of Elvis, so the next logical step is Hawthorne, CA; birthplace of Brian Wilson of Beach Boy fame. Here's the first photo of some booster parts:

The carbon fiber airframe tube is from Greg Fannin of Idaho. Greg is a very accomplished rocket person, known not only for his beautiful airframe tubes but also his high performance designs and nice machining work he does himself. The fins were fabricated for me from carbon fiber plate by Dave Triano of Shadowaero (formerly known as Shadow Composites).