Pacific Air Cargo (PAC) has been a long-time supporter of the University of Hawai‘i, carrying all types of cargo for various sectors, from the facilities and scientific equipment to the athletic department sports equipment and anything in between. They were pleased to assist the College of Engineering at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. PAC transported the Team Hōkūlele rocket to Los Angeles for a national competition in the Mojave Desert, CA near Edwards Air Force Base.
This event, called the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR)1030 Competition was open to college, university, and amateur rocketry enthusiasts for two classes of competition: Building and launching of rockets to either 10K or 30K feet.
Coming in second in the competition, the team’s rocket, named Kuamo‘o (Milky Way) was 15-feet long, carried a payload, and was the first two-stage motor rocket for the team. It reached the height of approximately 30,000 feet, protected its components from liftoff to landing and deployed a radio-controlled rover upon touchdown. Team Hōkūlele students have been working on Kuamoʻo for more than two years as they were unable to compete last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition allows the students to put their designs to the test and gain real-world experience in aerospace engineering. See video HERE
“Pacific Air Cargo is proud to support the U.H. Manoa School of Engineering and their efforts to stretch their limits and go beyond the expected,” stated Paul Skellon, Pacific Air Cargo Director of Marketing. “We are grateful to The Delivery People who partnered with us to provide ground transportation in Hawai‘i.”
Pacific Air Cargo was a part of a consortium of organizations who helped financially and in-kind to enable the team to build their rocket, transport it to and from Mojave and to compete so successfully.