July 11, 2009, Mojave, CA – Flometrics, Inc. has successfully flown a liquid fueled rocket with a renewable version of JP-8. and liquid oxygen. The fuel was developed by the EERC under a DARPA contact. The fuel was supplied by Bob Allen of the Fuels and Energy branch of the US Air Force Research Lab at Wright Patterson Air Force base. The 180lb rocket was a 20ft tall, 1ft diameter and it was powered by a RocketDyne LR-101 rocket engine that was originally used as a steering engine on the early Atlas and Delta rockets. The rocket performance during the 15s long burn was better than the performance of a similar rocket using RP-1 refined kerosene rocket fuel. It reached an altitude of approximately 20,000ft and may have exceeded Mach 1. The biofuel ran cleaner than the standard rocket fuel that has been used before. Since the biofuel was originally designed for jets, it may be possible to tune it for better performance in rocket engines.
VIDEO: Watch biodiesel rocket go supersonic
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