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GTF Aerospace new article content ...
GTF Aerospace is an aerospace company based in Western Australia, and is made up of voulenteers that spend there spare time designing, and building scale models of concept reusable launch vehicles and booster rocket systems. Given that the rules in Australia limits the use of alloys and metals in rockets, GTF uses non-metal, composite materials in the construction of prototypes such as the AV1.
Armadais Version 1 (AV1) The AV1 concept spacecraft model flies to a height of 1km, The spacecraft reached a top speed of Mach 0.89 on the 27th May 2012. The rocket is a 1/32 scale model, is about 42.5cm long, and has a wing span of 10cm. The rocket uses a range of engines, on this test flight, an E32 was used however it is built to take a much larger F72 engine, which is calculated to reach an altitude of almost 2kms. So far two flights have been done, and both proved to fly very straight, however both were lost due to higher than expected wind speeds higher up.
Armadais Version 1.1 (AV1.1) This version would be of scale 1/16 making the orbiter 83cm long (full scale is 9.28m long). At the same time the first and second stages will also be constructed, the total height of the 2 stage rocket booster is 100cm, making the whole craft 1.83m high on the launch pad. Construction of the new two stage rocket and orbiter would commence sometime mid 2013, with testing around September 2013. The orbiter will also be large enough to have the re-entry drag fins installed, which is hoped to work via radio control. So far in testing software, the flight is calculated to reach about 8km or about 24,000ft, which means in Western Australia a special permit would be needed to conduct the test flight of a 1.83m high rocket.
Subsequent Armadais Versions Pending the outcome of the tests due in 2013, if the flight reaches at least 90% of its calculated height, then a 1/4 scale of the real craft would be built and tested in 2014. At this scale, early calculations already have indications of the craft reaching the 100km mark (300,000ft) This is when GTF Aerospace would go public a few days before launch. If this flight is successful, then the full scale mother ship and orbiter would be build over a 2 to 4 year period.