Drag of Nose Cones

By
Ashley Van Milligan
A-Division
NAR 93487

National Association of Rocketry

NARAM 55
July 21-26, 2013

Page 1
The Objectives Of The Work
My project was to find the best shape nose cone that had the lowest drag. This was done by measur-
ing the force in a wind tunnel.

The Approach Taken

1. Where did I get the idea for my research project? I got my idea from my dad's book, “69 Simple
Science Fair Protectors With Model Rockets” (page 92) which nose cones are the best?
2. Where did I get the nose cones? My dad made some of the nose cones. I got the rest from Apogee
Components, at the Science Fair Collection (http://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket_Kits/Skill_Level_1_
Kits/Avion_Nose_Cone_Science_Fair_Kit) .

3. How did I make the nose cones? First I got the Science Fair Nose Cones. Then I lightly sanded
them. Then I sealed them and sanded them to make them smooth. After that, I painted them gray and then
I wet sanded them to make all of the nose cones the same smoothness. My dad helped me make the rest of
them.
4. Then I went to the Air Force Academy to test them. The people there helped me with the wind tun-
nel and the measurements. We wrote down the data. It took 45 minutes to test all nine shapes.
5. When we got home we looked at the information. We wrote it down in our chart and my dad
helped me make a graph showing how they compared.
6. Before I started I made predictions. The best one of my predictions was the Long Cone. The
worst one of my predictions was the Solid Cylinder. Why? The solid cylinder is like if you stuck your hand
out the car window with your palm facing the wind. The long cone is like if you stuck your hand out the car
window with your palm facing down.
Page 2
 7. Which one was the best and which one was the worst? The best one was the Long Elliptical. The
worst one was the Cupped Cylinder. I was wrong in my prediction.

Page 3
R & D Reports previously entered by the author, if any, with brief
summaries.
No R&D reports previously entered.

References to previous work done on the subject, found in research

preparatory to this report:
The references that I found show that not everyone agrees which nose cones have less drag.

Above image from: “Topics In Advanced Model Rocketry” (page 381), by Gordon K. Mandell,
George J. Caporaso, William P. Bengen.

Above image from: Estes Industries, “TR-11 Aerodynamic Drag of Model Rockets” (page 11) by Dr.
Gerald M. Gregorek

Page 4
The Equipment Used:
12” Wind Tunnels Open Circuit, Eiffel type (at the Air Force Academy).

The nine nose cones that I tested:

#1 – Parabolic, 2” long. Plastic – Apogee Components, PNC-24A

#2 – Ogive, 2” long, Balsa – Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment

#3 – Long Elliptical, 2” long, Balsa – Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment

#4 – Short Elliptical, 1-3/8th inch long, lengthened to 2” long with a body tube. Apogee Components
VFNC-24B.

#5- Long Cone, 2” long, Balsa – Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment

#6-Short Cone, 2” long, Balsa – Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment

#7-Solid Cylinder, long, Balsa – Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment

#8-Cupped Cylinder, Made from a 2” long BT-50 tube, with a tube coupler for the shoulder. The bot-
tom of the cup is 1.5 inches from the top. It was made from a cardboard circle.

#9-Vented Cupped Cylinder, Made from a 2” long BT-50 tube, with a tube coupler for the shoulder.
Page 5
 Nose Cone Shapes Tested

Plastic (Avion kit) Balsa Wood

P/N 20000 P/N 19420

Parabolic Long Cone
PNC-24A BNC-24-SF1

Balsa Wood Balsa Wood

P/N 19423 P/N 19421

Long Eliptical Short Cone
BNC-24-SF4 BNC-24-SF2

Balsa Wood Balsa Wood

P/N 19424 P/N 19422

Cylinder Ogive
BNC-24-SF5 BNC-24-SF3

Hollow Paper Cylinder Vac-Form Plastic

(with internal bulkhead) (with paper cylinder)

Cupped Cylinder Home-made Short Eliptical P/N 19997

VFNC-24B

Hollow Paper Cylinder

(with internal bulkhead)

Cupped Cylinder
Home-made
With 4 Vent Holes

Page 6
 The bottom of the cup is 1.5 inches from the top. It was made from a cardboard circle. Four
vents were made with a paper punch above the bottom of the cup.

The Facilities Used

United States Air Force Academy Department of Aeronautics Laboratory

This is the wind tunnel that I used at the Air Force Katrina McGuire helped run the wind tunnel for
Academy. The man that keeps the tunnel working my nose cone project.
is Ken Ostasiewski.

Katrina shows the computer at the wind tunnel. Katrina shows the weights used to calibrate the
system.

Katrina put the nose cones into the wind tunnel. I used a level to make sure the nose cone was level.
Page 7
 Levelling the nose cone.

This is me writing down data

Nose cone mounted in the wind tunnel.

Picture of the wind tunnel. The big fan in the wind tunnel.

Page 8
Picture of the front of the wind tunnel where the The Cupped Cylinder inside the wind tunnel.
air is sucked in.

Mr. Christopher Seaver is the Deputy Director for Laboratory Operations in the Department of Aeronau-
tics at the United States Air Force Academy, and gave us permission to use the low speed wind tunnel for
my project and my sister’s project.

Page 9
The Money Spent on The Project (budget):
Apogee Components Science Fair Nose Cone Assortment = $31.88
Body Tubes, tube couplers = $10.00
Nose Cones = $10.00

Total = $51.88

The Data Collected:

The chart on the next page shows the drag force for each nose cone we tested. This was the order
they were tested in the wind tunnel.

Page 10
 Wind Drag
Nose Shape Temp
Speed Force

Parabolic 39.28 mph 72.0° F 4.477 g

Ogive 39.28 mph 72.0° F 4.942 g

Long Eliptical 39.27 mph 72.0° F 4.149 g

Short Eliptical 39.27 mph 72.0° F 4.791 g

Long Cone 39.26 mph 72.5° F 4.561 g

Short Cone 39.25 mph 72.0° F 5.248 g

Solid Cylinder 39.24 mph 72.0° F 8.659 g

Cupped Cylinder 39.26 mph 72.0° F 10.459 g

Vented Cupped Cylinder

39.19 mph 72.5° F 10.399 g

Page 11
The Results Obtained:
Heres the list of nose cones from best to worst:
#1 - Long Elliptical
#2 - Parabolic
#3 - Long Cone
#4 - Short Elliptical
#5 - Ogive
#6 - Short Cone
#7 - Solid Cylinder
#8 -Vented Cupped Cylinder
#9 - Cupped Cylinder

With 4 Vent Holes

Cupped Cylinder
Cupped Cylinder
Solid Cylinder
11.0

10.0

9.0

8.0
Drag (grams) at 39 mph

7.0
Short Cone
Ogive
Parabolic

Short Eliptical
Long Eliptical

Long Cone

6.0

5.0

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

Nose Cone Shape

Page 12
The Conclusions Drawn
The conclusion drawn, if you want your rocket to go high you should use he best nose cone. You
should use the Long Elliptical shape, because it has the lowest drag. Don't use the high drag shapes like the
Cupped Cylinders.

Putting holes in the Cupped Cylinders does not make a big difference at all because the drag does
not go down.

Further work that would clarify or extend the results obtained:

I would use more nose cone shapes and maybe tail cones. I think it would also be better to test the
shapes at higher wind speeds.

Credits:
I would like to thank these people:
My dad helped me make the nose cones and make a nose cone chart, and find references.
My mom helped me typed this report.
The people at the Air Force Academy helped me with the wind tunnel: Christopher A. Seaver, Ka-
trina L. McGuire, Ken Ostasiewski.

Summary
My R&D was about the drag of nose cones shapes.The drag is a force of resistance, which is a push
or a pull. I got this idea from my dad’s book “69 Science Fair Projects With Model Rockets.” The first nose
cones I got were some of the Science Fair nose cones assortment from Apogee Components. These were all
balsa wood and I sanded these first. I then glued them to seal them. Then I lightly sanded all the balsa wood
nose cones again to make them a little smooth. Then I painted and wet sanded them. My dad helped me
make two of the other nose cones. One of the nose cones was a plastic one from a kit. The last nose cose
was a vacuum-formed nose cone with a tube added to make it 2 inches long. All the nose cones were the
same length. I used a total of 9 nose cones.
I went to the Air Force Academy to use their wind tunnel to test the nose cones. I put each nose cone
through a wind tunnel to find the drag of each nose cone. Each nose cone was put in a body tube that was
held by a black tube holder. Then air was sucked through the tunnel and the computer measured the drag
force. We got the results at the end of the testing.
The results showed that the Long Elliptical Shape was the best nose cone. The second best was the
Parabolic Nose Cone. The order for the rest was: #3 Long Cone; #4 Short Elliptical; #5 Ogive; #6 Short
Cone; #7 Solid Cylinder; #8 Vented Cupped Cylinder and #9 Cupped Cylinder. The Cupped Cylinder had
the most drag.
This experiment was a surprise because my prediction didn’t really match, and I thought it would
match.

Page 13