The launching height is an important technical parameter for the signal flare. In order to test the launching height of the signal flare, the measurement technology based on the single area array CMOS camera is proposed by establishing mathematical model. By calibrating the camera angle of view, the video images collected from CMOS camera are processed by MATLAB, and the real-time measurement for launching height of signal flare is achieved. Meanwhile, the sources of error are analyzed and the accuracy of the system error is estimated, and the launching height of the signal flare is between 159.348 m and 167.567 m. The result shows that the advantages of the measurement system are low cost, simple operation, easy deployment, high precision, high degree of automation, without limitations of measurement environment and errors of manual reading, etc.