Team Prometheus

Data from the North Texas Near Space 4 mission can be found here: http://www.busadriver.com/NTNS-4%20131019/
The video: http://youtu.be/mKZ7TVaLLLM
The North Texas Near Space Team:

North Texas Near Space 4 (NTNS-4) was successfully flown on 19 October. The plane released at the planned altitude of 101k feet, very close to preflight predictions. The plane captured aerodynamically very quickly, but did not capture roll rate due to an error in the rate feedback coordinate system. This prevented early pitch capture and resulted in a maximum velocity of 493 mph in a fairly impressive dive. The idea here was to stay well below compressibility and commanded airspeeds were much lower. The plane did achieve M=0.73. Pitch was captured at about 54k feet and the airframe experienced about 6G sustained during the pullout. Some guidance issues were present and an issue in the nav_bearing command resulted in some "snaking" as the plane navigated to the first two waypoints. The issues with the command went away as the plane turned to the last waypoint. Loiter down started at 12.6k feet and was uneventful. I landed the plane manually (FPV) but set up approach too late and had to land in the field. Some damage resulted but the plane is easily repairable. I will likely post a blog on DIYDrones containing the build log as well as GNC details.
Regards,
Larry G

Thank you Larry!

Monroe

Looking good guys

Meanwhile.... Back at the ranch
We are taking what we have learned and applying it to Project Condor!

Preparing Project Condor for a balloon drop from 100kft. The final goal to balloon launch from the booster into space and recover with a safe landing.

Monroe

Just to check this, your plan is to fly a balloon to 100k then drop a small plane from the balloon, fire it and reach actual space?

Loving the work buddy!

Rob

Close but not exactly! I've got this 170,000cft zero pressure balloon. This Q impulse booster and the Condor. So balloon rocket then plane.

Monroe

It's small stuff lol

The Q Booster

The Zero Pressure balloon Raven industries 170,000cft

Mission Control

I can look cool throwing a peace sign

And by god we are going to space!
Damn the torpedoes

Monroe

Monroe, good stuff! Have you got a timeline for your tests?

Funky paint job on the plane . Looking pretty impressive all this stuff, I'm looking forward to seeing the video!