Dick Stafford's Rocket Dungeon Blog 
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Other Rocketry / Water Rockets
Air Command's Recovery Guide (2009-01-02)
Air Command has compiled an extensive guide to rocket recovery . Although oriented towards water rockets, it provides a comprehensive survey of processes and techniques. For example, we 'pyro' folks ... [Read More]
More Air Command high tech low tech (2009-05-26)Water rockets use the simplest of fuels. But they don't have top be simple. When I built a water rocket, the components consisted of a tire stem, basswood, foamboard and duct tape. For Air Command , ... [Read More]
High speed video of the inside of a water rocket (2009-06-30)Air Command has acquired a Casio Exilim FC-100 and have documented the dynamics inside the chamber of a water rocket. Cool! [Read More]
Ait Command's latest clustered, staged, video water rocket (2009-07-06)Real time, high speed (which makes the video slo-mo), and on-board footage from the Acceleron V: All the details can be found here . [Read More]
Dual deploy water rocket (2010-03-03)George Katz shakes his fist at the rocket eating trees. That is, now that he has a dual deploy ejection mechanism to keep his rockets, and their on-board camera, out of said trees. Read ... [Read More]
Air Command hosting change and a general lament on linking (2010-05-16)Today, George Katz announced that his main Air Command website was re-hosted and now has its own domain. I updated my links list in the sidebar but, as usual, I won't update individual ... [Read More]
Some day, I will build a water rocket launcher (2010-05-23)And when I do, Air Command will show me how. Never thought of the check valve, have to find one of them. Wonder of Harbor Freight has 'em in their large area dedicated to air tools? [Read More]
Water rocket boost gliders (2010-05-26)Here's an album of the first water rocket gliders that I've seen. [Read More]
Air Command Water Rocket Labs is open for business (2010-05-27)George Katz just opened an extension to his Air Command site - Water Rocket Labs . You can search Air Command's Data, do unit conversions, submit your data, and request experiments. Read ... [Read More]
Tuesday water rocket entertainment (2010-11-02)George Katz put together this video for his Day 97 Flight Report . He flew his Acceleron V three times, attaining the impressive altitude of 864'(263m). The video includes ground footage and on-board ... [Read More]
Air Command whips out their big 10 foot (big a$$ rocket of the day) (2010-12-11)George provides this sneak peak at the Polaron G2 with its "21L of goodness." [Read More]
Water rocket stagecoach spaceship (2011-02-20)Clark Lindsey reports on another reference spaceship design, the Space Coach , which was first described in a paper published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society . In a real ... [Read More]
Water rocket CATO at 250psi (2011-04-12)Attached is a summary video from Air Commands's Launch Day 103 . The rocket scientist in you will like the description of their new side deploy mechanism, which is controlled by custom ... [Read More]
Blast Off of the World's Largest Water Rocket (2011-06-17)This rocket was built for the NPL's Water Rocket Challenge 2011 . The rocket was made from over 100 bottles and was over 11 feet long. Blast Off of the World's Largest Water Rocket , a photo by ... [Read More]
Air Command's Servo Timer II, it's not just for parachute deployment anymore (2011-07-10)Enter the Pan Cam . They installed a servo, a battery, and a Servo Timer II in a box with a tripod and camera mounts. Add a remote reed switch and you've got an inexpensive tracking ... [Read More]
Underwater water rockets? (2011-09-16)While jumping from video to video, I stumbled across this one from my favorite water rocket site, the good folks at Air Command. [Read More]
New Air Command YouTube Channel (2011-11-03)Air Command Water Rockets has set up a new YouTube channel. This will consolidate their videos from all across the web into one easy to find place. The new ones will go there and George ... [Read More]
Air Command's Shadow II water rocket flies to 1239 ft (2012-07-02)Here's a composite video of two flights, including regular, slo-mo, and on-board segments. Awesome rocket...way to go Air Command! Two launches of the Shadow II water rocket. The ... [Read More]
Air Command paints the sky (2013-04-04)Air Command's latest update ( #132 ) covers the latest flights of their Inverter Rocket. I think this is one cool looking rocket! One of the many recurring questions on TRF is, "can I mix different ... [Read More]
Air Command shares 7 Years of... (2013-06-17)..."really cool" flights. You don't get to their level of sophistication without a few hiccups along the way. My favorite segment starts at 7:25 in. George, I look forward to see your progress over ... [Read More]
New water rocket launcher (2014-04-14)I just received a launcher and two screw-on fins sets from StratoFins . I had considered building a Clark cable tie launcher for some time but somehow never got around to it. So, when I saw one for ... [Read More]
Water rockets are bad for me (2014-04-18)Several months ago, I went cold turkey off sodas, sweetened teas, etc. I have been pretty good up until now. I just bought a 2L Dr. Pepper for the nose section of my StratoFins rocket. I also got ... [Read More]
3 water rockets ready for the grandrocketeers (2014-04-21)I drank my Dr Pepper and lopped off the top of the bottle. I added an elastic cord to connect the nose, body and 'chute. After dry fitting it, I give it a 25% chance of success. I thing the nose ... [Read More]
Water rocket deployment progress! (2014-04-30)I guess there is a ray of hope in the otherwise wet, gloomy day. My wife was cleaning up and found a multi-legged crawling toy. I resisted my immediate urge to disassemble it since I thought my ... [Read More]
Water rocket complete...and named (2014-05-01)Since my last post, I affixed the tire stem cap to the timer's winding stem using some epoxy clay. This morning, I attached the timer and rigged the rubber bands. One band is attached to the side of ... [Read More]
Dumpster diving for water rocket parts (2014-05-05)On the eve of our recycling pickup, I went 'dumpster diving'. Luckily, these dumpsters are small and manageable. I managed to scrape up five, 2L bottles and a 1L from Dean and Deluca sparkling ... [Read More]
Water rocket FAIL (2014-05-13)I stacked two sets of spliced bottle using a commercial tornado coupling and another 2L using a home made coupling. I started doing a low pressure pressure test and found the stack was leaking like ... [Read More]
HidroMAX water rockets (2014-05-22)HidroMAX is a soon-to-be kickstarted (hopefully) water rocket company. They promise a serious launcher, highly adjustable and capable of supporting various nozzle sizes, reliable deployment and ... [Read More]
New water rocket ready for flight test (2014-06-05)Here's my new water rocket. It has a capacity of a bit more than 5L and features a new rounded nose, home-grown 'tornado coupler', and a new timer. I need to sim it and fiddle with the timer to get ... [Read More]
Yet another hair brained water rocket (2014-06-11)I recently ran across a Space Shuttle water rocket. That got me thinking about that spare Guillows foam Shuttle that I've had laying around... The Shuttle had been converted to fly as an air rocket ... [Read More]
Water rocket Space Shuttle progress (2014-06-17)Here are main components attached to one another. I still need to: Make a nose cone, make the fin units that will slide into the SRB's, and attach all the recovery stuff. For the first SRB's nozzle ... [Read More]
Space Shuttle water rocket...getting close (2014-06-27)Progress since the last update: Nose Cone - I roughed out a truncated conical nose cone out of some poster board. It's not perfect, but I liked it well enough. I beefed up the inside with ... [Read More]
Water rocket videos (2014-07-08)Thanks to Bob from MDRA/Liberty Launch Systems, I have some videos of my water rocket flights at ESL-192. There are three for both the Manatee 2 and the FTC-1. Two of the three are from tripod ... [Read More]
Air Command's new salvo launcher (2014-09-22)Four pads with programmable launch intervals...so cool. And yes, it can do a drag race too. [Read More]
World record static model water rocket (2014-11-11)I thought this awfully ambitious project was worth a look-see, even if it didn't fly. There are also some photos on BSA Troop 227's web page . [Read More]
Update on BSA Troop 227's ginormous water rocket (2014-11-21)Well, they tried again. This time it, er, worked. In that it did launch. Unimpressive altitude but an impressive geyser. [Read More]
Space Launch System engineers steal a play from AirCommand Water Rockets (2015-02-18)Watch this cool video of NASA and Orbital ATK engineers performing a burst test of their composite booster case...using water. More burst test videos can be found on AirCommand's site :) [Read More]
Launch Report 2015-2 (solo water rocket) (2015-05-06)Location: MoCo Agricultural History Farm Park Weather: calm, hazy, 80 degrees Total flights: Today - 0; YTD - 12 Total motors: Today - 0; YTD - 12 Motors by class YTD: MMX-2; C-5; E-3; F-2 ... [Read More]
Totally awesome 600+ psi water rocket launcher from Air Command (2016-01-25)[Read More]
A rocket that can fly on dihydrogen monoxide *and* APCP?!? Say WHAT? (2016-09-01)Well, that's exactly what the folks over at Air Command are doing. In a continuing move to the dark side, they want to start flying HPR. So they are building a rocket that can either fly as a big ... [Read More]
Launch report 2019-1 (updates) (2019-05-29)Location: High Ridge Park Weather: low 90's, wind 0-5, clear Total flights: Today - 2; YTD - 2 Total motors: Today - 0; YTD - 0 Motors by class YTD: H2O - 2 Well folks, it's been almost a year since ... [Read More]
Steampunk rocketry = hydrogen powered rocket (2009-01-15)From the annals of Make Mag , I find this cool hydrogen powered rocket . The control system uses a 12V 3.3Ah lead-acid battery to generate the hydrogen and ignite the gas. Kinda like an armor-plated ... [Read More]
New propellant - flour and compressed air (2009-03-08)A discussion on the water-rockets Yahoo group asked if talcum powder could be used in lieu of water in a water rocket. (Yeah, I know, it wouldn't be a water rocket.) One respondent came up with a ... [Read More]
Total repair bill? less than $5 (2009-07-28)George Katz made the following, highly entertaining music video of his Acceleron Vb water rocket CATOing. It includes full speed, slow motion, shrapnel identification, on-board, and forensic ... [Read More]
A big congrats to George Katz! (2010-03-27)George reports from Air Command that he set two personal water rocketry records. He set a new altitude record of 810' (246m) using his Acceleron V booster rocket with the Axion IVb sustainer. ... [Read More]
Acceleron V video report (810' on H2O) (2010-03-30)George Katz, as promised, has updated his web site with a full report of his record setting (personal) water rocket flight. The update includes photos, altimeter plots, and flight event time lines. ... [Read More]
The quest for 300 psi (2010-04-15)George Katz updates us on his experiments with fiberglass-reinforced PET bottles . It will be cool to see what his big and complex water rockets can do when pressurized to 300 psi. He recently ... [Read More]
Aquapod (2011-02-01)Tempted to get an Aquapod launcher to launch water rockets made from the bottles of the same name . (Am I boring, or what?) [Read More]
Links and nuttin' but links (2011-06-04)In no particular order: Here's a Flickr album on the flight of the the Copenhagen Suborbitals' HEAT 1X-Tycho Brahe flight: - Mission 2011 . And more HEAT 1X-Tycho Brahe videos, via Clark ... [Read More]
{insert sound of a record scratching to a stop} (2011-11-11)I have been playing with fin styles for my big crayon. From a typical 4 fin arrangement to 3/4 fins with winglets like the Jayhawk to a near minimum diameter ring fin like some ... [Read More]
Alternative fuels (2011-11-15)The guys at Air Command decided to try some alternative fuels in their water rockets. Since most of these didn't have any water in them, I guess I should call them air rockets v. water rock ... [Read More]
Only The Shadow knows (2011-12-12)Air Command's The Shadow includes custom fiberglass tubing and nose cone, lots of machined parts, rail buttons, a custom launcher, and home grown electronics. Sounds a lot like your ... [Read More]
The Shadow flies to 947 and 1017 feet (2012-02-14)Air Command has posted a detailed report on the flight of their large, all fiberglass, water rocket. This thing is amazing. It looks like, and is constructed like, your typical level-1 ... [Read More]
Links roundup (2012-04-19)Billionaire-Backed Space Venture Planetary Resources to be Unveiled April 24 - Space.com - The new venture, named Planetary Resources , "will overlay two critical sectors — space e ... [Read More]
Links roundup (2012-06-06)As I'm sure you all know, Ray Bradbury passed last night. He was 91. Here is an essay he wrote back in 2000: " Why NASA?... " McDonnell Douglas Phase B 12-Man Space Station (1970) ... [Read More]
The fuel is cheap, but the GSE can be expensive (2012-08-01)Air Command has an interesting article on SCUBA equipment , as applied to water rockets. I've become half-way interested in continuing my work on a PVC cannon for air rockets and have been ... [Read More]
The quest for pyro free parachute deployment (2012-08-27)Pyro free deployment is, in my opinion, one of the 'holy grails' of sport rocketry. The 'pyro' rocketry folks (of which I am one) have had some success with compressed gas and mechanical ... [Read More]
Links roundup (2012-09-03)V-2 rocket footage , High Power Rocketry (9/3) Live Hangout with me at RocketFest! , Bad Astronomy (9/3) - Fundraiser for Huntsville's US Space and Rocket Center - Rockfest Check out T.I.'s ... [Read More]
More low tech rocketry in the Dungeon (2012-09-11)I managed to score a paper rocket experimenter's pack from Mike Bauer. This includes 3 air rockets to experiment with altitude and 8 to experiments with stability. The altitude pack are ... [Read More]
A (short) tale of air and water (2012-09-24)Here are the two flying things that I have on deck. I assembled the Quest water rocket and converted a Guillows Space Shuttle to launch off of my 1/2" PVC launcher. I chose a 2-L pop bottle ... [Read More]
Links roundup (2012-10-05)How much water? , Air Command Water Rockets - George sent me this link to explain why my water rocket flights didn't go as well as I would have liked. Video: Understanding the u ... [Read More]
TGIF! (2013-06-28)Yet another set of found photos... Think I might have already posted this, but I don't care. Reportedly, the world's biggest water rocket. A twofer mashup - The Fireball XL5 and the T ... [Read More]
Launch Report 2013-11 (air and water) (2013-12-19)Location: Da 'hood Weather: sunny, wind 0mph, temperature an unseasonable 50 Total flights: Today - 14; YTD - 71 Total motors: Today - 0; YTD - 90 Motors by class YTD: Water-4, Air-15, MMX-3, A-10, ... [Read More]
"Curses, foiled again!" (2014-04-24)Yesterday, I had an ingenious idea, "Why not use my Xavien timer on a water rocket?" I was thinking it fairly light and can use a small battery such as an A23. To initiate ejection, I was thinking ... [Read More]
"Curses, foiled again." - part 2 (2014-04-28)I have been searching for a cheap mechanical timer to deploy a 'chute from a water rocket. I haven't gone out with the sole intent of finding one, but have made several stops while running other ... [Read More]
1st attempt at splicing soda bottles (2014-04-29)I decided to proceed and try to splice some soda bottles. I followed the US Water Rockets tutorial . I chose this over the method described on my favorite water rocket site, Air Command Water ... [Read More]
Launch Report 2014-5 (2014-05-02)Location: King Farm Weather: 64 degrees, mostly cloudy, winds 5 to 10 with occasional lulls Total flights: Today - 7; YTD - 35 Total motors: Today - ; YTD - 33 Motors by class YTD: Water-7, MMX-1, ... [Read More]
Yes, I still love fire and smoke... (2014-05-09)Egads, I just noticed eight of the ten posts on my blog's main page are dedicated to water rockets. For years, I've been ribbing George Katz that, sooner or later, he would come over to the dark ... [Read More]
Good day of rocket foraging (2014-06-04)Unexpectedly, I stumbled across some cheap wind-up toys at a nearby nature center. The basic timer mechanism seems like the same one that I had used before. It also winds down nice and slow but has ... [Read More]
First FTC rocket and hod dog fuel grain update (2014-06-07)I completed my first FTC (fluorescent tube cover) nozzle/closure using the method outlined by Bristol Water Rockets . The first attempt to shrink a section of a PET bottle was a mess. I applied too ... [Read More]
FTC-1, mostly complete (2014-06-09)Here's a diagram of my FTC-1 water rocket. The indicated CG is set to the computed centroid and the CP is set to 'Barrowman'. The actual CG is half an inch from the centroid. In order for this ... [Read More]
Launch Report 2014-8 (2014-06-22)Location: MDRA, Central Sod Farm Weather: high of 80, cloudy changing to clear, wind 0-5 Total flights: Today - 10; YTD - 61 Total motors: Today - 6; YTD - 49 Motors by class YTD: ... [Read More]
Videos of my flights from ESL-192 (2014-07-09)Peter has posted his videos from ESL-192 in MDRA's YouTube Channel. Ankyo-mcH on a microhybrid FTC-1 water rocket (landed on AMW's trailer) Manatee-2 water rocket ... [Read More]
Terror in the Sky Airfest (updated with a discussion of tolerances in design) (2014-07-23)Braving the 100 degree humiture, I traipsed out this afternoon to a local park to fly a couple of low tech water rockets and my Blade 180-QX Quadcopter. My drone piloting skills suck...hence the ... [Read More]
Launch Report 2014-10 (2014-07-26)Location: MDRA, Central Sod Farm Weather: cloudy turning to clear, wind 0 -5, around 90 degrees max Total flights: Today - 8; YTD - 80 Total motors: Today - 9; YTD - 70 Motors by class YTD: ... [Read More]
Launch Report 2014-13 (2014-10-12)Location: MDRA, Central Sod Farm (ESL-196) Weather: 60's, sunny turning to cloudy, wind 0-5 mph at ground level, lower up high. Total flights: Today - 6; YTD - 105 Total motors: Today - 6; YTD - 95 ... [Read More]
A few observations from this morning's social media (2014-12-06)I see some people blasting NASA for a flawless Orion flight. In their opinion if there wasn't a failure the task was too easy. Lots of criticism on the NASA TV feed, which evidently failed during ... [Read More]
The Dungeon's Top Ten of 2014 (2014-12-19)1. I started the year with two 29mm conversions, thanks to Estes and their great sale. 2. In March, Semroc officially announced that, after Carl's passing, they would be closing their doors. On a ... [Read More]
A better way to make cones out of PET bottles (2015-06-09)I have made several nose cones out of water bottles. If you get one that is a usable diameter, you still have to worry about what to do about that pesky cap. I have foamed the cone and then formed a ... [Read More]
Rocket recovery rig (2015-08-18)After losing a rocket to the trees last weekend, I decided to build one of US Water Rocket's tree rescue system. They described their tool in a video: Tree Rescue System . Mine is basically the same ... [Read More]
Water rocket of the day (2017-09-15)6000psi, 35gallons, 62mph in 0.5sec, top speed 162mph [Read More]
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