Hello All,

Below is a link to information on the Tronador I (Tronador means "thunderer" in Spanish), a 3.4 m tall, 60 kg liquid propellant test vehicle built and flown by Argentina's CONAE (Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales) in 2007. An illustration of the rocket is at the bottom of the "screen-page."

The Tronador I used aniline and nitric acid. The Tronador I, II, and III are intended to give CONAE the experience they need to develop an indigenously-designed satellite launch vehicle. Here is the link: http://www.conae.gov.ar/eng/accesoa...o/tronador.html

I hope this information will be useful.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Searching on Google using Spanish terms ("Proyecto Tronador" and "Tronador cohete" ["Project Tronador" and "Tronador rocket," respectively]), I found a few more links to drawings, photographs, videos, and information on the vehicle (in addition to the link in the initial posting above). Here they are:

http://www.rocket.com.ar/biblioteca...to_Tronador.pdf

http://www.grupoartax.com.ar/CA_Tronador.html

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dVyA1CHCws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQGR...feature=related

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Neat!

It appears to be a hybrid, using a solid fuel base and a liquid oxidizer. The docs said "3.3 M" and "15 CM", which I'm loosely interpreting as the length and diameter measurements.

The NC is a basic conical, meaning we could model this rocket with a Black Brant II or III cone.

The PDF shows the fins are basic deltas, but the web page shows them as rectangular. Which ones were more common?

One could almost conceive a 1:1 scale model of this one, which is roughly 10 to 12 feet long.

ADDENDUM: About 12' long and about 6" diameter...

__________________
Craig McGraw

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I thought it was a neat find as well! The three Tronador I vehicles used liquid propellants (aniline and nitric acid), which were carried in *concentric* propellant tanks (as they were in the World War II German Taifun liquid propellant un-guided anti-aircraft rocket) and were pressure-fed to the 550 kg thrust engine.Indeed--the included angle of the 150 mm diameter X 600 mm long nose cone is 14.25 degrees. I'll have to do the tangent computation to be sure, but I think the BNC-20R (Estes WAC Corporal, Rogue, & Mighty Moe nose cone) has that included angle (I think the Black Brant II and III nose cones have 11 degree included angles).Only three Tronador I vehicles were flown, two in 2007 and one in 2008. My impression is that the delta fins shown in the PDF were changed to rectangular to give the rocket more fin area and a better stability margin. Also, the delta fins were shown with single-point mountings (possibly intended to be movable, perhaps by a guidance system in a later version, *or* maybe just to ground-adjust the fins' angles of attack to spin the vehicle) while the rectangular fins had longer mounting brackets. I'd still like to model the delta-finned early version--it would be "contest legal" under the F/F (Future/Fiction) Scale and Sport Scale categories for models of proposed, cancelled, and fictional vehicles.That was my thought as well! It would be the right size for a scale HPR model, or even a 1:1 scale model using clustered large model rocket motors.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Here is a translation of an article about the Tronador I test vehicle:

FROM: http://www.grupoartax.com.ar/CA_Tronador.html
(Translated using FreeTranslation.com www.freetranslation.com )


INTRODUCTION

The project Tronador I consists of the technological trial for their validation in flight of a motor of liquid fuel and of their corresponding structure aerodynamics, that conform a series of static trials, of resistance, aerodynamic, etc.; of all the assembly of the vehicle bearer, and at the same time the necessary measurements for the functional performance of all the components of the same one, as thus also all the team of support in land And the integration of all the systems and necessary sub-systems to carry out successfully the validation in flight.

In this project will also be put to test a methodology of teamwork coordinated by the CONAE (National Commission of Spatial Activities) and that groups to different institutions as the IUA (Aeronautic University Institute), the CNEA-IB (National Commission of Atomic Energy, Institute Balseiro) and other institutions responsible for offering so much logistic support like thus also of installations for the trials of validation.

Since the year 1995 the CONAE (National Commission of Spatial Activities) to included in its spatial plan the intention to design, to develop and to build a vector of fuel I liquidate with capacity for the inclusion of small satellite loads in orbit, with the intention to take advantage of all the experience and capacity of scientists, engineers and technicians in our country, including this point particularly in the "National Spatial Plan", categorizing the same one As a vector or injector with satellite capacity of liquid fuel and of economic feasibility for the exploitation with peaceful end of the space according to international agreements.

From the 2001 begins with the calculations for the design of the vector to charge chiefly of the IUA (Aeronautic University Institute). May 27, 2004 a first trial of the motor in the installations is carried out of CITEFA (Institute of Scientific Investigations and Techniques for the Defense) in Village MarÃ*a, Cordoba. At the end of the 2005 the trial of the motor assembly of the Rocket is carries out Tronador I, in the installations of the CITEFA (Central of Scientific Investigations and Techniques of the FAA), sito in Village MarÃ*a. The objective of said trial was the test of a new injector of propellents developed and manufactured jointly between the Institute Balseiro and the Aeronautic University Institute. The trial was carried out under the supervision of personnel of CITEFA, CONAE, Institute Balseiro and of the IUA. The motor practiced is of the type bipropelente liquid that utilizes aniline and nitric acid. The experience turned out to be successful, being obtained a burned partner and a harmonious push to the prior theoretical calculations. The they lit, occurred in smooth form, very important fact to maintain the integrity of the assembly. The injector practiced showed a compartment and clearly better performances with respect to the model utilized previously.


TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The project Tronador I is a vector of trial with a minimum capacity to carry instruments of registrations for the subsequent analysis of the data collected in the flight of validation.

Payload

The compartment of the useful load consists of a diameter fuselage portion 150 mm and the cone or warhead located in the top end of the vector and built in composed materials, with a maximum capacity of 4 kg. The useful load consists of all the necessary equipment for the functionality of the vector as thus also the equipment and necessary instruments for the flight data registration of the same one. Does not know itself if this prototype counts on some system of recovery. The equipment and instrumental is comprised of:

•Data acquisition module and generation of telemetry
•sensors reading Module
•energy conditioning Module
•Receiver GPS and its corresponding system of antenna.
•Sensors of pressure and acelerómetros.
•Transmitting of band S and its corresponding system of antenna.
•Pack of batteries

Tank Section

The section of tanks is comprised of three internal tanks, a pressurized tank for gaseous Nitrogen to 200 bar, a tank of fuel (Aniline) and a tank of oxidante (acid Nitric), all built chiefly with composed materials, what permits to lighten the final weight of the vector. Between the tank of N2 and the tanks of fuel and oxidante a section of separation is found interetapas which permits to lodge the valves and connections of the system hidroneumático of the rocket. In the lower part of all the assembly another section to adapt interetapas permits in adapting of the all the system of tanks to the section of the motor, and that contains the valves and connections that feed the combustion chamber.

Motor Section

The assembly of the section of the motor is composed of two fundamental pieces of the vector, the first one is the exactly said motor, that consists of a combustion chamber and a nozzle built in fireproof materials or of low thermal conductivity as the graphite. The second is the aerodynamics stabilization system, which this mounted one on this section with a lumber. The vector possesses no system of guide and its stabilization is completely aerodynamics, by means of four rectangular flippers with a time lag that infers to the vehicle a gyroscopic stabilization to a velocity from among 1,7 and 5 rps.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR