4th Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (2009; Arizona State University, Brigham Young University, California State University Long Beach, Seattle Central Community College, University of Washington)
The 4th Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition was held June 25-26, 2009, near Green River,
UT.
- First Place: California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)
Cal State Long Beach Team with $350.00 First Place Check and Trophy. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) provided the prize money. On the far left is Dr. Paul Mueller, ESRA President, and on the far right is Charley Hoult, Guest of Honor
- Second Place: University of Washington (UW)
University of Washington team with the $150.00 Second Place check and trophy. Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) provided the prize money.
- Furfaro Award: University of Washington
University of Washington team with $250.00 check for the Jim Furfaro Award for Technical Excellence and the "Flying Calculator" trophy. Strategic Space Development provided the award money. In addition, GWiz Partners, Inc., provided an "HCX" flight computer:
Special thanks to Gwiz Partners for donating the flight computer!
Guest of Honor: Charles (Charley) Hoult
The Guest of Honor at this year's Competition was Mr. Charles (Charley) Hoult of California State University-Long Beach.
In 1958 Charles Hoult was initiated into the sounding rocket business as
a freshly commissioned Air Force Second Lieutenant assigned to Air Force
Cambridge Research Laboratory in Bedford, MA.
After leaving the service in 1961 he continued his sounding rocket work
at AFCRL until 1968. His AFCRL
responsibilities included systems engineering for, and flight test of, new
sounding rockets. His experience
there covered the spectrum of sounding rockets from Nike-Cajun thru Aerolab Argo
D-4. From 1968 thru 1971 he worked
on the Aerobee and Astrobee sounding rocket families while employed by Space
General in El Monte,
CA. From 1971 thru 1973 he was employed by
Space Vector Corp., Canoga Park, CA working on the Aries guided sounding rocket
and various guidance and attitude control systems. As a consultant he continued to work on
sounding rockets until 1977.
After 1977 he worked for The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA, and TRW (later part of Northrop Grumman), Redondo Beach, CA, until his retirement in 2007. During these thirty years he supported the Titan launch vehicle and various classified satellite and missile defense projects. Starting in 2006 he returned to his first love, sounding rockets, by accepting an appointment as Mentor in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Dept. at California State University Long Beach. During his career he participated in launches from White Sands, NM; Ft. Churchill, Manitoba, Canada; Eglin AFB, FL; Barreira do Inferno, Natal, Brazil; Western Test Range, Vandenberg AFB, CA; Eastern Test Range, Cape Canaveral, FL; and the Friends of Amateur Rocketry Site, Mojave desert, CA.
He was educated at MIT and UCLA. He is a member of the AIAA, the Planetary Society and the Air Force Association. His sounding rocket publications include 17 papers on mission planning, structural loads, trajectory dispersion, and postburnout attitude.
Mr. Hoult gave a talk on "Tricks of the Trade" at the Awards Banquet and helped present the awards.
Also, Charley's wife Janet, a poet, read an original poem about the competition:
Engineering Rockets
by Janet
Hoult
Now that our rockets are back down on
earth
We gather for our banquet with great
delight and mirth
And to talk about apogees, nose cones
and tail fins,
Burn outs, launch rails and problems
with winds,
The causes of the difficulties with the
ignition
And the end of another terrific
IREC competition
We knew we had completed well engineered
tasks.
Yet the question was raised - “Who won?”
was asked.
The answer is “We all did.” by learning
from each other
And knowing that we'll spend the year
preparing for another
As we learn to build, test, perfect and
eventually fly
More Experimental Sounding
Rockets up in the sky.