Nic was surprised by the description of the Air Munuviana rocket. She was thinking model rocket, like you might find in a hobby shop, toy store or Wal-Mart. High power rocketry works on the same principles, it's just bigger. Here's a picture I posted before of one of our larger rockets.

Posted by: Ted at 09:40 PM | category: Rocketry
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Just for fun, I thought I'd share some of the more unusual rocket designs I've come up with. Each of these rockets has made successful flights. I just don't like to fly boring rockets.

First up is a tube-finned rocket, the Bad Medicine. Like the description says, the fins are lengths of tubing, which makes for a tough and very stable rocket. It adds more weight than you'd have with regular fins, so they're not as popular as standard designs. I prefer the cool factor though.

The Vampyre is one of the first rockets I ever designed from scratch. This one is a ring-fin. I'm still flying this little rocket, and she amazes people with the sheer speed and altitude she gets.

Still playing with the concept of asymetrical fins, I next designed the Starbow. This design flies acceptably, but it's not really a great flyer. The pictures suck too, this is pre-digital camera days.

Undoubtably the oddest design I've ever done, the Cinderella doesn't look anything like what most people think of as a rocket. She does, however, look like something you'd see in Earth orbit in a Chesley Bonestell painting. The picture shows the prototype, which worked so well I literally flew it to pieces (over 30 flights). She's now hanging from my workshop ceiling. A second model was built and finished with silver paint, but it didn't fly nearly as well. I've also partially constructed an upscaled version to fly on bigger motors.

Finally, the Barenaked Lady was a project that Rachael and I did together. Extremely lightweight despite six fins and her hefty size, she rocks on mid-power motors.

I just realized I don't have pictures posted of another odd-roc we did, named Invader Zim's Song of Doom. She used a funnel for drag stability instead of fins, and the nosecone was a green plastic easter egg with silver alien eyes made from duct tape. This one had problems from the outset. Not with the going up part, but with the coming down part. As in parachutes not wanting to work correctly. She finally destroyed herself by becoming a lawn dart, and we have the video tape to cringe over anytime we want to watch it. Embarrassing.

Posted by: Ted at 09:31 PM | category: Rocketry
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An ongoing debate among rocket hobbyists is the use of ‘effects’ motors. By adding carefully selected impurities to the chemical composition of a motor, you can create a variety of results. Common among these are smoky motors, sparky motors, and even exhaust flames of different colors. Such impurities can also produce sound variations like a crackling during the motor burn. In order to keep their product lines distinct, propellant formulations are closely held by commercial motor manufacturers (all of this applies to Ammonium Perchlorate motors and not the common model rocket motors available from Estes or Quest).

A high-efficiency propellant formula produces almost no smoke and very little visible flame. Most of the power of the motor goes to producing thrust and not the visible byproducts. ThatÂ’s the bottom-line purpose of the rocket motor.

But what fun is that? A small but vocal group of rocketeers are devoted to pure power and maximum thrust for a given engine size. Anything less than the ideal have been dubbed ‘knob’ motors.

I am a knob. I love the knob motors. So what if I lose some power or efficiency, when my rocket takes off trailing a thick plume of smoke, or leaps into the sky atop a long tongue of neon green fire? That's what's fun for me, and I think the majority of rocketeers agree with me. Here's a description of some of the knob motors that I love to fly.

Aerotech makes motors in a variety of sizes and propellants, including Blue Thunder which has the most power, a thin blue flame, and almost no smoke, White Lightning with itÂ’s orange flame and thick white smoke, Redline with an intense red flame and moderate smoke, and BlackJack which roars and produces thick black smoke. They also manufacture EconoJets, which are smoky, loud and crackly motors, but you pay for the effects at the cost of motor power. Their selection is probably the best all-around available.

Ellis Mountain makes the ThorÂ’s Hammer line, which are super-aggressive motors with lots of thrust right from the get-go.

Animal Motor Works started a couple of years ago, and is slowly expanding their line. Their offerings include Green Gorilla, White Wolf, Blue Baboon, and Super Tiger. IÂ’m looking forward to Skidmark Squirrel, which is a sparky motor. Imagine a fireworks sparkler about two feet long, two inches around, and going straight up at a couple hundred miles per hour. Definitely not for the dry season!

There are others, but these pretty much show the range available. Of course, the motor and rocket airframe have to be matched up carefully. A rocket that can handle the relatively gentle thrust of BlackJack propellant may shred into confetti under the kick of ThorÂ’s Hammer. Likewise, you might need the big spike of thrust at the start of a Blue Thunder burn to get a heavy rocket off the pad and flying stably.

In my range box right now, I have an H-165 Redline, an H-128 White Lightning, a G-75 BlackJack, plus a handful of EconoJets and some smaller mid-power propellant reloads. IÂ’ve also got a pair of reloads left for my nitrous-hybrid motor. With a rocket launch this Sunday, and BattlePark in Culpeper, Virginia the first weekend of November, IÂ’m looking forward to being a knob.

Posted by: Ted at 12:32 PM | category: Rocketry
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1 Well, I once lit a Black Cat™ under a beer can, and did it ever fly high!

Posted by: Tiger at September 24, 2003 05:55 PM (XSoWH)

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If you've seen the movie October Sky, or read the book Rocket Boys upon which the movie was based, then you've already met Homer Hickam. Homer was one of the original Rocket Boys, and he wrote the book as well as several more since. You may also remember that Homer Hickam went on to become an aerospace engineer with NASA, and helped design the Space Shuttle.

Homer Hickam will shortly be beginning a tour to promote his seventh book. Details and schedule can be found here. If you haven't read any of his stuff, I highly recommend it. He's also been very supportive of educational programs including the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

I posted this on the old blogspot site once, but it's one of my favorite pictures, so here it is again. Mookie and Homer Hickam, taken at the Team America Rocket Challenge 2003 Finals. more...

Posted by: Ted at 07:40 PM | category: Rocketry
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Get a load of this.

I've bitched about this before, both here and on my old blogspot site, about how the Homeland Security Act has gotten way out of control, aided by some rather stupid members of congress.

I'll excerpt the part that's making my blood boil, you can read the whole report here.

Briefly, Senate bill S.724 was introduced by Senator Enzi in order to provide relief to hobbyists that were inadverdantly impacted by the Safe Explosives Act passed after 9/11. The key point being that the rocket fuel we use doesn't explode by any definition.

Excerpts are in italics.

As we head into the final months of the first session of the 108th Congress, the substitute Enzi bill, S. 724, is stalled in the U.S. Senate due to holds placed by Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Lautenburg (D-NJ).

NAR/TRA met this week with the Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel to
Senator Lautenburg. While the meeting was cordial, it was clear that
there is little, if any, likelihood of persuading Sen. Lautenburg to
remove his hold. His concerns are not necessarily with APCP being used
to make a bomb, or with a terrorist actually delivering a payload with
an amateur rocket, but with the potential "mayhem" that such a person
could cause by misusing an amateur rocket or rocket propellant. A
specific example given was a person launching two or three large amateur
rockets in close proximity to Newark International Airport during a busy
flight schedule, the theory being that such an act would cause
widespread panic. Arguments about the low probability of such an event,
its actual impact, the fact that such an act is already illegal, etc.,
were not persuasive. We were told that the mere potential for such an
act warrants "heavy regulation regardless of the burden imposed" on
individuals. [emphasis mine]

The low-probability potential for an already illegal act is enough to cause these two to take away your freedoms. According to these guys, if the government doesn't specifically allow it, you can't.

Several calls to Sen. Schumer's office have not produced a return call or meeting, but we have nonetheless gone to the Senator's office to provide them with a direct rebuttal to the ATF "views" letter sent to Sen. Hatch in June.

And the other 'servant of the people' won't even talk about the issue. Hobby rocketry is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but they've already begun to make moves against RC airplanes and cars as well. It's the baby steps people, that'll get you every time.

Posted by: Ted at 08:49 AM | category: Rocketry
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Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you not one, but two opportunities to meet the nicest group of technology geeks and cowboy-biker hobbyists ever to count backwards to zero.

Right around the corner, on September 20-21, in Muncie, Indiana, the Rocketeers of Central Indiana (ROCI) will be hosting a high-power rocket launch. The field is the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) International Aeromodeling Center located just outside of town, and I've flown there before, it's beautiful. See the ROCI site for details. If you live in the area, stop in and check out something different.

Slightly farther out there on the calendar, as well as several hundred miles eastward, the fall BattlePark 2003 Launch is scheduled for the weekend of November 1-2. Located in Culpeper, Virginia, this is one of the premier events in the east, with rocketeers attending from all over the eastern U.S. and Canada. I'll be there both days, and Mookie usually makes at least one if not both. This launch features some of the most interesting projects and flights around. As usual, spectators are free, kids fly their rockets for free, and you'll never meet a friendlier group of people. Come on out, walk around, talk to folks, ask questions, and be prepared to say 'wow'. Oh yeah, they've already obtained an FAA waiver for flights to 15,000 feet.

You are invited and welcome.

The extended entry is just me bragging about my project from last years BattlePark launch.

more...

Posted by: Ted at 09:01 PM | category: Rocketry
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1 Very cool - but the drive is a bit long for me

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 09, 2003 10:39 PM (jtW2s)

2 I REFUSE TO GO TO MUNCIE. Don't even think it dad! That place is worse then.. *thinks really really hard* ... T.J.s bed room (before robyn got it)

Posted by: Rachael at September 10, 2003 02:43 PM (2sKfR)

3 Heh. and oh yeah. We might have to go down to Orange County on the 31st.... *coughhomecommingcough*

Posted by: Rachael at September 10, 2003 02:45 PM (2sKfR)

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