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In my time with SOAR, I led two projects aimed at developing a mechanical air brake system to actively control the peak altitude of a rocket during flight. The first air brake system development I led was part of SOAR's 2025 IREC project, PAX 1, with a project goal of developing a 6-inch rocket air brake system to help the launch vehicle accurately hit a target altitude of 10,000 feet.
The second air brake system I developed was designed entirely by myself. This new system was designed to fit inside a 3-inch rocket and would allow rapid test flights to tune student-developed altitude control algorithms. This project would reduce the cost associated with software testing by 95% while still providing real flight conditions similar to scaled-up systems.
6-inch Rocket Air Brake System
I led the modelling, prototyping, and final mechanical assembly of an air brake system for altitude control on PAX 1. I led a small team to develop a model, 3D-printed prototypes, and a final design. To save costs and reduce manufacturing lead times, I modified the design to simplify it without impacting functionality. My final design allowed a majority of the parts to be water jet-cut, 3D printed, or off-the-shelf.
For this project, the goal was to create an air brake system that could actuate three flaps using a single servo motor mounted inside a coupler tube for the PAX 1 launch vehicle.
To transfer the servo motor's rotational force to the air brakes hardware, a D-shaft was used with set-screw-retained shaft collars.
To then transfer this rotational motion into linear motion, rod-ends with spherical bearings were used on the system. These rod-ends were directly attached to the air brake flaps, which were constrained with linear rails cutouts.
The final 3D printed prototype before final assembly is shown on the left.
To save weight on the final assembly, the flaps and custom shaft collar were manufactured from aluminum. The top and bottom structural plates that retained the hardware in place were water-jet-cut from carbon fiber to maximize strength.
To fully assemble the air entire air brake system, three threaded rods were run through the top and bottom structural carbon fiber plates. These served to retain the three aluminum flaps while also creating a strong structure for the servo and electronics to be mounted onto.
All the hardware was able to be packed into a 6-inch rocket coupler tube and retained in place.
3-inch Rocket Air Brake System
One of the last SOAR projects that I took on was the design and manufacturing of a 3-inch rocket equipped with an air brake system for active altitude control. This rocket's intended purpose was to allow testing of new air brake control system software on a low-stakes, and low-cost flight (H & I impulse class motors).
With this 3-inch rocket and air brake hardware, test flights for controls system software could be done with 95% less cost and much faster turnaround times.
The goal for this project was to create a dual-flap air brake system that could fit inside a 3-inch rocket body tube. Like the previous design I worked on, a single servo motor was to deploy both flaps simultaneously. To keep costs as low as possible, this system was to use as many 3D-printed parts as possible.
The first challenge associated with this project was the achieving the proper part tolerances for the 3D printed components. The housing needed to be tight enough to constrict vertical motion in the flaps, but still loose enough to allow easy sliding along the guide rails.
After many trial runs, the design seen above was selected for the main system hardware.
The next challenge was to create strong parts to translate the rotational motion of the servo to linear motion of the flaps. Like the previous design for PAX 1, control arms attached to the rotating servo were used in combination with the linear guide rails in the housing. Custom-made control arms with press-fit ball bearings were created for this project to translate this motion.
One end of these rod ends would be directly attached to the deployable flap. The other end would be directly attached to the servo motor horn. The bearings allowed the rod arms to move freely in a linear motion, transferring the servo's force.
The final assembly of the hardware can be seen above. The coupler tube for which the hardware and electronics would be housed was also 3D printed. The final milestones for this project would be the electronics manufacturing, rocket construction, and cycle testing before a real flight.
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