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Charles Hoult, 1933-2016

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The Reaction Research Society (RRS) would like to remember Charles Hoult who passed away late last year in November.

Charles Hoult, 1933-2016

Educated at MIT and UCLA, he began his career in the Air Force working with sounding rockets starting in the late 1950’s until the late 70’s. He worked for Aerospace Corporation and TRW (Northrop Grumman) until his retirement in 2007. In addition to his professional work, he started academic work as an adjunct professor at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in 2006. He was active for decades in the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) and attended many amateur rocket launches in several countries.

Experimental Sounding Rocket Association

One of his lasting contributions is his website with several open-source tools for amateur rocket design.
Rocket Science and Technology – Charles Hoult

His ashes are to be launched and dispersed into the atmosphere by a CSULB rocket over the ocean at an upcoming Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) event in June 2017.

The Los Angeles Times had an excellent obituary. The link is below:
Legacy.com / LA Times – Charles Hoult (1933-2016)

The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department of CSULB also posted a memorium for Charles Hoult:
CSULB remembers Charles Hoult

Any of our members who have specific memories or even photos of Charles Hoult that they would like to share are encouraged to comment here.

Apogee Aeronautics, SuperLoki launch rail system

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On November 14, Osvaldo and I had the chance to meet Robert Kleinberger of Apogee Aeronautics. Robert runs a small engineering company specializing in sounding rockets. We had a chance to see one of the SuperLoki launcher systems that he had assembled and mounted on a trailer system in Orange County.

SuperLoki launcher from Apogee Aeronautics

view of the control panel, SuperLoki launch trailer

The SuperLoki is a sounding rocket design that was started in the late 1960’s and were used in the US and other western countries up until the supply was exhausted in the 1990’s.

In short, this two-stage rocket system consists of a first-stage solid propellant booster with an instrumented “dart” that coasts up to high altitudes, typically to make upper atmospheric weather measurements. The four-fin booster and four-fin dart are rail-guided to impart a controlled spin for stabilization.

Super Loki PWN-10A model

SuperLoki launch rails, side view on rails

Astronautix.com has specific details on the SuperLoki launch vehicle
Astronautix.com – SuperLoki

Wikipedia has a fuller article on the subject of the Loki series of rockets including the Super Loki.
Loki rocket – Wikipedia

Robert was assembling one of his SuperLoki rail launchers for a client, but ultimately, the launch trailer will reside at the Chico Air Museum in Chico north of Sacramento, California. The launcher will be there on display to the public. Although the SuperLoki launch trailer is not yet at the museum, I have put a weblink to the museum’s page.

Chico Air Museum

Although he may not make his presentation personally, Robert has put together a series of notes for our upcoming monthly RRS meeting. We’re looking forward to January 13th. Hope to see everyone there.

2017 new year’s greetings

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Hello and welcome to the new year, 2017!
Just a few quick announcements…

(1)
I am grateful to be serving as the new secretary for the RRS. In my first duty to the RRS, I will start reaching out to our current and past members individually to both introduce myself and update our member information for our database. We don’t share our list, but we do like to keep accurate records and make updates. It will take some time, but it will be good to meet all of you. Please feel free to contact me anytime at secretary@rrs.org

(2)
The RRS symposium has been officially announced for April 22nd at the Gardena Community Center. We’ll post more details after the upcoming January 13th meeting next Friday.

(3)
And finally, the keychain camera video was downloaded from the November 2016 flight and the edited footage should be posted to the RRS YouTube channel very soon. Our channel is “ReactionResearchSoc”

I have left a link below, please review what we have posted so far. New material is coming soon!

Reaction Research Society on YouTube

As always, our invitation to come see us in Gardena at next Friday’s meeting (01/13/2017) at 7:30pm stands to current, past and future members. Have a productive, safe and exciting new year!