Research and Development

63.1 Research and Development Competition is open to any NAR member who is performing research, or engineering new developments, in which model rocketry plays a primary part. The purpose of this competition is to stimulate new concepts, approaches, and ideas in:

(a) advancing the state-of-the-art of model rocketry; or
(b) using model rocketry as a research tool.

Projects previously entered in a meet with a contest factor greater than or equal to the current meet may not be accepted as an entry unless the contestant has demonstrated that significant new work has been done.

63.2 This event may be conducted at Conventions as well as at Competition Meets. A Convention director desiring to hold Research and Development Competition shall apply for a contest sanction as described in Rule 6.8. The Convention shall be sanctioned as a Local Meet, with a Contest Factor of 1 and a Weighting Factor equal to the maximum Weighting Factors available at a Local Meet as described in Rule 6.6.

63.3 This competition may not be conducted by proxy, unless the Contest Director rules that special circumstances, such as illness, warrant special consideration.

63.4 Each entry in this competition shall be judged by at least three Judges, who shall be selected by the Contest Director. Although NAR membership is not a prerequisite for judging, all Judges must demonstrate a working knowledge of the rules of the competition, and be technically competent to judge the quality of the entries.

(a) The objectives of the work;
(b) The approach taken;
(c) The equipment used;
(d) The data collected;
(e) The results obtained; and
(f) The conclusions drawn and/or plans for further work.

63.6 Each entry shall include, in addition to the detailed report, a separate 250-300 word written summary of the report. The summaries from all the entries shall be sent to the NAR Contest Board by the Contest Director with the meet results. The NAR reserves the right to publish the summary in order to disseminate information on current R&D activities. This in no way is intended to interfere with the contestant's right to publish his/her report or summary.

63.7 The contestant should be prepared, if called upon by the Judges, to make an oral presentation on his/her project. The oral presentation shall not exceed fifteen minutes. The presentation should cover briefly the material of the written report. During this presentation the contestant shall not be interrupted. No oral comments shall be made by anyone until the presentation is complete and the contestant asks for questions. At this time, the Judges and members of the audience may question the contestant concerning his project for a time not to exceed ten minutes.

63.8 An oral presentation shall be required from those contestants being considered for the top places.

63.9 If required, the contestant must demonstrate his/her project in operation. Success or failure of the demonstration shall not affect the contestant's score, provided that the contestant gives a reasonable oral explanation of the deviation from expected performance.

63.10 If any entry does not fully comply with the safety standards set forth in this NAR Sporting Code, the contestant must present to the RSO evidence that the entry is really safe in operation. The RSO is the only official who may judge the safety qualities of a project.

63.11 Contestant must state in his/her written report or oral presentation how much money was spent on the project, and what facilities were available to him/her to carry out experimental work.

63.12 Research and Development competition shall be scored as follows: places will be awarded sequentially descending from first place (1-2-3-4) on the basis of the quality of the projects submitted, and their new contributions to the hobby or its applications. All places need not be awarded. Entries not placing, which in the opinion of the judges were entered solely to qualify in the event and which offer little or no quality value, may not be awarded flight points for the event at the discretion of the judges.

Weighting Factor 36