Hardware Store Hybrid Rocket Motor

This is the first static test with our homemade tar/oxygen hybrid rocket motor. James Turner and myself (Eric Stackpole), and two of our friends, Jeff Bernard and Caleb Lesher did this project last summer because we wanted to learn more about how rocket engines work. We built the rocket in James' garage in Humboldt County, CA completely out of parts we got at the local hardware store. We had previously done a little over 20 tests with polyethylene, but none of them came close to this having much power (note the shaking of the camera when the rocket fires.) The camera did not capture them, but we could clearly see shock diamonds (indicating a supersonic exhaust velocity) running the entire length of the plume. We would have begun working on getting run times longer and perfecting nozzle geometry, but parents made us stop the experiments completely after our first test. There are several even larger rockets we built that we are waiting to be run if we get the chance. Admittedly, we did not know the rocket would be this powerful, and the fist thing we did after this test was build an enclosure with one foot thick walls filled with sand. We'll post more clips as we develop our rocket program.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Hybrid
• Rocket
• Motor
• Test
• Hardware
• Shock
• Diamonds
• Fast
• Powerful
• Foolish
• Nerd

[djodom11345663]

"Where's your earplugs...", said Mom.

[JuRaBinks]

your just mad because you have come to realize no matter how much you hate us one day you will work for us and your life will suck.....

[irqvet2010]

I was not expecting all that, it probably moved the building an inch or 2

[neovictorius]

did you use gunpowder or something for the ignition? - Or was the ´lighter enough to do "that"?

[albyva]

Nice test. Although I would have done it outside..

[shiningarmor102]

Are you going to do any more tests? It's been 5 years. I was hoping to see more. Good stuff though. I hope you're working for NASA now....LOL.

[donperry1]

Put a nozzle on it and show me some mach diamonds

[cellavb447]

This video was made in 2007 and there will not be a sequel.

A short google search will show you that Eric Stackpole, one of the boys in this video, is now working at NASA.

This goes to show what a little bit of hard work and perseverance can achieve.

To any other prospective rocketeers:

Keep at it. The sky isn't the limit.

[o0oD4n1so0o]

for one moment I thought they nuke the world! Lmao that was like an earthquake!! Any instructions on how to build a baby like this?

[plavins1]

that was intense!

[AnotherGlenn]

That needs to be outside!

[kdawgHBMs23]

that was amazing