NAR: the National Association of Rocketry - is a non-profit tax-exempt scientific organization dedicated to consumer safety, youth education, and the advancement of technology in the hobby of spacemodeling (sport rocketry) in the United States.
The NAR is creating an very comprehensive online bibliography and archive of technical reports that includes old MITCON proceedings and NARAM technical reports, and other R&D reports. It is available under the Member Resources tab on the NAR site.
Tripoli: the Tripoli Rocketry Association - a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and operation of amateur high power rocketry.
Rocket Suppliers
Apogee Rockets: Makers of the rocket design and flight simulation software, RockSim . I use RockSim for designing all my rockets and predicting flight altitudes. I import the RockSim data into my Flight Data Analysis spreadsheet to compare the simulated to the measured flight data.
Public Missiles: I use PLM phenolic tubing as the base tube for my fiberglassed tubes. These tubes are very high quality, and once fiberglassed, are very strong and durable. The fiberglass also provides a very stable base for a high quality paint job.
Fruity Chutes: They make very high quality parachutes. Their custom colors allow me to match my paint jobs, and the elliptical design looks just beautiful during descent.
PerfectFlite: I have used the PerfectFlite HiAlt45, and now the StratoLogger altimeters in all my dual deploy rockets. They are easy to use, and have been very reliable (I've never had one fail to deploy properly). They have high current outputs that work with wrapped nichrome igniters that do not require a pyrogen. The StratoLogger is a logging altimeter. See my Flight Data Analysis Spreadsheet for analyzing the fight data.
BigRedBee: I use the 70cm ham-band Beeline GPS to track and record flight data for many of my rockets. The latest versions, both with and without the high poser amplifier work very reliably. See my Flight Data Analysis Spreadsheet for analyzing the flight data.
RAF Research: I use the RAF AL-016 High Speed Data Logger to record the acceleration and rotation rate of the rocket and use that data to create the flight visualization including the attitude of the rocket.
Other Supplies
McMaster-Carr: my favorite place to buy mechanical parts - incredible selection, great web site, and no minimum order!
APC Composites: Where I buy many composite supplies including fiberglass cloth, peel-ply, and breather cloth. This is where I bough my hot wire frame. They have a very tight weave cloths in a variety of weights - I use a lot of 6 oz and 9 oz tight weave cloth.
CST: This is where I buy West Systems epoxy and my vacuum bagging supplies. They also have a broad selection of composite supplies.
Fiberglast: A good composite supplier with a nice selection of tools and a full range of supplies.
Aircraft Spruce: They have a nice selection of large sheets of thinner and thicker aircraft grade plywood.
Speedy Signs: A great online custom vinyl lettering shop. They have a selection of fonts. I have my letters cut as stencils (they remove the letter leaving the surround after cutting) since I use these as painting masks for painting the letters onto my rockets.
Super Lube: Grease us for assembling composite motors
Dunstone: Suppliers of heat shrink tame for making fiberglass body tubes. I like the perforated tape as it allows the excess epoxy to escape as the tape compresses the layup. I use the 1"x.002" (100489) and 2"x.002" (100214) perforated tapes.
Digikey: A great site for electrical parts including switches and battery holders.
Arduino Related Information and Supplies
Arduino: The official Arduino site where the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) is available for free download
Sparkfun: They sell Arduino boards, and have a broad range of other electronic hobbyist supplies
Adafruit: Another supplier of a broad range of Arduino and other electronic hobbyist supplies
Python Related Information
Python: The main web site for the Python programming language
Vpython: The main web site for the VPython 3D graphical library for Python
