Quote:
Originally Posted by clive milne
Yep... but I used to roll my own motors so to speak.
Experimented with (home made) black powder as well as sugar and potassium nitrate - which was interesting in that you could basically make a kind of toffee to pour in to the casing... and of course, zinc dust and sulphur - the rockets containing that stuff used to leave the ground at a rate completely in defiance of any rational interpretation of laws of physics. Perceptually, it was like seeing a pillar of smoke suddenly appear in the sky, with a shiny metal object leaving your peripheral vision never to be seen again.
Watch this to get an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT4RoRg9TCk
Also machined up a liquid fuelled rocket motor when I was an apprentice... never did fire it up though. There was the small mater of acquiring an oxidant. Not the sort of thing you can justify as an over the counter purchase when you are a teenager.
It's sad that in today's political climate you can no longer play with that sort of stuff without ASIO knocking on your door.
Probably just as well...
it's a miracle that I still have all my fingers and eyesight still intact considering the risky stuff I used to entertain myself with as a kid. |
Clive that's all pretty impressive. The liquid fuelled motor most of all. Do you still have it anywhere?
In terms of RC a "rocket"...these days you can buy small operating liquid fuelled jet engines. Though not truly a rocket powered rocket, concealing one of these inside a rocket shaped body could be fun. More a guided missile than a rocket perhaps.