intro
A few years ago, we purchased a Water Rocket Launcher from Maplins, that came with a single small rocket. It was great fun and we then bought more of the same rocket in different colours.
We then noticed that one of the ends of the rockets that screwed on could fit a lemonade bottle and so we started to make rockets out of lemonade bottles. At first these rockets were more about appearance than performance, as then were badly designed and often spiraled out of control. So we made rockets that were powered by only one bottle-yet had several ontop helping for aerodynamics yet adding weight. We decorated the for effect, see the Saturn 5 below.
But at the present we have been working on a new rocket that isn't just powered by one bottle at the bottom and the rest for aerodynamics- no. We are intending to glue together at least 8 bottles (in pairs) and create a giant rocket called Britannia.
So we embarked a this new project- but with new ideas come new challenges- we needed a parachute. We have recently been testing this new parachute release system on a test rocket.
We then noticed that one of the ends of the rockets that screwed on could fit a lemonade bottle and so we started to make rockets out of lemonade bottles. At first these rockets were more about appearance than performance, as then were badly designed and often spiraled out of control. So we made rockets that were powered by only one bottle-yet had several ontop helping for aerodynamics yet adding weight. We decorated the for effect, see the Saturn 5 below.
But at the present we have been working on a new rocket that isn't just powered by one bottle at the bottom and the rest for aerodynamics- no. We are intending to glue together at least 8 bottles (in pairs) and create a giant rocket called Britannia.
So we embarked a this new project- but with new ideas come new challenges- we needed a parachute. We have recently been testing this new parachute release system on a test rocket.
Here is the new launcher we recently build, again using the Gardena Launch mechanism. It uses the same bicycle valve from the old one yet pegs in and will allow us to put a guide rail up against it allowing for more successful launches. Plus the string allows us to stand further away when launching which will give us better film and is more safe for the people operating it!