Kingston University Rocket Engineering (KURE)

KURE has presented the first milestone review of the year! The initial concept review is where students propose to academic supervisors and industry professionals the ideas for the project goals and the concepts that will achieve them. This follows the process that is standard in the aerospace industry. The reviewers provided critical feedback which led to some technical discussions on solutions to problems, and how to simplify and further develop the proposed design concepts. This is one of the many key industry skills that KURE gives students an opportunity to develop. #kure #engineering #aerospace

Meet the next KURE leaders! President - Vinay Williams - PhD student and co-founder of KURE Secretary - Thomas Newton-Weil - 4th year MEng student Treasurer - Kevin Zuchowski-Morrison - 4th year MEng student Media Officer - Cyprian Gut - 4th year MEng student Despite the seemingly narrow role names, all will be involved with the management and technical aspects of our projects, as well as leading the teams in the competitions of the coming year.

Last week KURE launched their competition rocket Chronos at the Mach-24 competition. Unfortunately not every post is a total success story... Chronos suffered a failure leading to high speed impact into concrete, causing significant damage to the rocket. We are still analysing data and recovering corrupted video footage to figure out exactly what went wrong. Despite this, we have already identified several things about our design and procedures that would improve function and this highlights the most important thing about this experience: Lessons learned! Through failure, our team has learned a great deal, and a failure learned from is ultimately a success. ...Although we did get quite unlucky with hitting concrete as grass would have certainly left less damage!

Ladies and Gentlemen, may KURE present to you: Project KINGFISHER! Please enjoy with the sound turned up. Once a again a big thank you to our sponsors AMRC Satellite Applications Catapult Total Carbide Versarien® plc And special thanks to Alistair John , Charles Simpson , James Macfarlane , Adam Greig , Ian Waugh , Ed Moore , Yun-Hang Cho , Abdul Haque , Evren Yasa , James Hughes , Airborne Engineering Ltd , Westcott Venture Park , Westcott Space Cluster Race 2 Space Kingston University #kure #race2space #aerospaceengineering #promovideo

Today, just before 4pm, Kingfisher roared to life! Not only did we have time for two firings, all components survived both tests with temperatures reaching over 3000 kelvin. This is a huge achievement for this team of young engineers! We want to thank all of our partners. Satellite Applications Catapult who were vital in advising om how to design for additive manufacturing as well as their help with component production. Total Carbide Ltd and Versarien® plc who machined both the combustion chamber and the injector section in record time. AMRC 's FerretWorks division for the 3D printing of our engine in Inconel 718. We want to say a big thank you to Airborne Engineering Ltd and their amazing team, who despite the stubbornness of Kingfisher, managed to light the engine and sustain combustion. We also want to express our gratitude to the admin, academics, technicians and all employees at Kingston University for assisting with making this project a reality. Without their assist with funding, manufacturing, travel and so much more this could not have been possible. Lastly but not least we want to thank Race 2 Space and the The University of Sheffield for organising and giving us the opportunity to test our engine. This competition has allowed us to take the theory we have been taught at Kingston University, and put it into practice. This provides our STEM students with vital experience thats directly related to industry, helping bridge the gap between academia and full time employment after graduation.

Official poster reveal! We are almost ready for Kingfisher to hot fire tomorrow at Wescott for Race 2 Space, with just a few more rounds of cold flow testing and preperations for the big day. Make sure to follow us on Instagram where (if data signal allows) we will livestream the firings @ku_rocket_engineering We are all excited to see the results

Our rocket engine Kingfisher recently finished manufacturing! It just needs some finishing touches before we receive it ready for hot firing at Race 2 Space next week. We are all super excited to hold our long awaited Kingfisher! Kingston University #rocketry #engineering #aerospaceengineering #kure #race2space

Our rocket engine Kingfisher recently finished manufacturing! It just needs some finishing touches before we receive it ready for hot firing at Race 2 Space next week. We are all super excited to hold our long awaited Kingfisher! Kingston University #rocketry #engineering #aerospaceengineering #kure #race2space

We are very excited to see our Kingfisher fire (and of course all the other engines too)! See you all very soon!

Kingfisher is being printed! Our bipropellent rocket engine is being made using a method known as additive manufacturing or metal 3D printing. this allows us to make the engine entirely out of just two parts, while having intricate details like the cooling channels inside. A big thank you to Satellite Applications Catapult for sponsoring us for the manufacturing and for letting us using their machines. The process is scheduled to be finished next week, just in time for the Race2Space competition, where we will test fire this engine. Kingston University #Kingston #kure #race2space #rocketscience #additivemanufacturing #3dprinting #liquidrocket #rocketengine #space #propulsion