And so it begins...

Well actually it has sort of already begun considering that this is my second blog about rocket engines. My first being the 50lbf Hollistar Liquid Rocket Engine. I have since moved on from the machine shop of my former race team and have spent the last year in Cape Canaveral developing telemetry and data analysis tools for rockets. Now I am starting to get the itch again. Truly, its a need to hear/feel/experience that completely indescribable sensation that causes even the earth itself to tremble when you walk the fine line of physical possibility.

Here at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center everyone within about 50 miles knows the thrill through the looking glass of SpaceX, ULA, Boeing...etc from our fairly regular launches. Though I have the priviledge of taking my lunch break to drive 5 miles across the cape and witness
1 million+ pounds of thrust launches from within the confines of the rockets "danger zone", there is still something missing. Maybe it is just the enormity that I can't comprehend... whatever it is I am going to go looking for it again. This time I am going back to basics.

I have felt limited and contained by not having access to a machine shop where I can just whip up any customized idea that comes to my imagination. Which made me wonder... how have people been building rockets since 904AD? They didn't have access to machine shops and all the tools that I had. In my 7 years of Aerospace Engineering study focused in propulsion, I found that I knew more about the history of chemistry and medical science than I did about rockets. This is where my new project begins.
My overly ambitious goal as of today is simple. Build a rocket that breaks the sound barrier. 
Sounds easy enough. If I wasn't trying to gain true insight and understanding, I could simply ebay some premade rocket, load it up with motors and fire it off for ~$300. But why would I make it that easy?

I'm going to attempt to build my rocket entirely from scratch without buying a single thing from a rocketry supplier. Even the blackpowder will be made from scratch and it will all be chronicled here! So please follow along!