Bloodhound Rocket Test Firing
Posted: 2013-1-7
Placing eight Olympus i-SPEED 3 high-speed video cameras around the largest
rocket to have been fired in the UK in 25 years was always going to be a
challenge. Add difficulties such as the fact that the test was to be run in a sealed
bomb-proof hangar, communications and control was to be run 350 meters to a
second command hangar and that the test by it's very nature was a one-off all
combined to make this one of the most challenging tests conducted by Olympus.
Cameras were set to record at 500 frames per second with a 400 microsecond
shutter speed and an exposure of F16. The cameras were set, record mode
activated 2 hours prior to the test and nerves frayed while waiting for the "go"
signal. Once set there was no going back as the hangar was in lock-down.
On firing, the rocket produced a plume some 15 feet long and a corresponding
noise to match! Despite melting the lenses on some of the i-SPEED cameras due
to their close proximity to the plume all eight recorded stunning slow-motion
video footage which will prove invaluable to the rocket team for the analysis of
their rocket burn.
rocket to have been fired in the UK in 25 years was always going to be a
challenge. Add difficulties such as the fact that the test was to be run in a sealed
bomb-proof hangar, communications and control was to be run 350 meters to a
second command hangar and that the test by it's very nature was a one-off all
combined to make this one of the most challenging tests conducted by Olympus.
Cameras were set to record at 500 frames per second with a 400 microsecond
shutter speed and an exposure of F16. The cameras were set, record mode
activated 2 hours prior to the test and nerves frayed while waiting for the "go"
signal. Once set there was no going back as the hangar was in lock-down.
On firing, the rocket produced a plume some 15 feet long and a corresponding
noise to match! Despite melting the lenses on some of the i-SPEED cameras due
to their close proximity to the plume all eight recorded stunning slow-motion
video footage which will prove invaluable to the rocket team for the analysis of
their rocket burn.
