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Rockets
Another of my hobbies are rockets, a stray from my normal hobbies but I still like them. Unfortuneately, I had to give it up, this was because the guy i used to go with stopped going, and i had just started secondary school and i didn't have enough time for them. But this is what they are all about...
Rockets leave a launch pad a come down again on a parachute or streamer depending on their weight. But they may come down 100 metres from where you launched them from, this is why I became a member of SERFS, (Southern England Rocket Flyers) so every month from April - October I could use a field for the day to fire my rockets in. SERFS club is a safe way to launch rockets because everyone there knows about them and you are insured for a year by BMFA (British Model Flying Association).
Here is a cross section of a rocket
Rockets work by there being a powerfull motor in them, these take the rocket up to and sometimes above 1000ft and then after a certain amount of time the charge inside the motor goes off. This sends hot gases through the rocket, to protect the parchute from being melted, you use wadding which is a fire proof material. The charge pops the cone off and the cone will then pull out it's recovery (usually a parachute or streamer). However I would say there is a 1 in 3 chance of the rocket working. Sometimes the recovery doesn't come out, or the charge never pops the cone off the rocket (of corse thats not to helpfull when the rocket's plumiting to Earth from 1000ft!) There is nose weight in the cone so that half way along the rocket it will be balanced (it's usually heavier at the end because of the motor). The fins provide stability when it's flying, they also help to give a smooth and straight flight through the air.
The rockets are launched by electricity, the wires from a hand controller clip to an igniter which is a thin piece of wire with a drop of flammable stuff in the middle of it. Then when 12 volts are passed through the igniter, the wire in the igniter gets so hot it ignites the flammable stuff, because the igniter is situated in the rocket motor it to will ignite the motor and off it goes. It will keep travelling until it runs out of propellent, then it will burn through a section of gunpowder (acting like a fuse leading up to the charge) and will set off the 'Ejection Charge' which sends the hot gases through the rocket popping of the nose cone and pushing out the recovery and it will float down to Earth - hopefully!
Want any info...?
