Pheonix Plot

This plot is from the data of a Cambridge accelerometer which was mounted internally to the fuselage of the Phoenix. The only usable data here is acceleration, as the velocity and altitude are the results of integration. This means that the acceleration data is massaged with the time data that is captured by the computer. This then is used in a calculation which derives the altitude and the velocity. The altitude data on this plot is known to be spurious as the flight went severely off vertical. While the actual altitude is not known, a good guestimation would be approximately 2000'.

One of the drawbacks to using accelerometers is that they must be mounted in line with the axis of the rocket. Also they have no indication of off vertical flight so it is wise to combine barometric altimeters with accelerometers to assist in determining the actual altitude reached.

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