Water Bottle Rockets
Jack has been building and launching water bottle rockets.
To the left is the "before" picture of a passive second stage that gets boosted with a primary stage 2-liter bottle. The "after" picture is to the right. It is not in too bad of shape considering that it landed through the woods and into a river and was lost until the next day. That initial flight was a beauty -- both the booster and the passive stage went very high and then the booster slowed down and the passive stage kept on going just like it should.
Here is the "after" picture of the booster. Notice
the post holder inserted into the top that loosely holds the passive stage.
The passive stage is set down over the post and rests on the larger PVC
tube.
On the right are a couple of reusable
fin ensembles for 2-liter bottles.
This is the Gaskella-designed launcher that we use
to launch our rockets. It's been used quite a bit, so it's a little dirty.
You can make one just like it (or better) with the plans listed below.
Imagine our surprise when we found this
picture in a recent issue of "Glamour -- Fashion Dos and Don'ts". We will
not repeat their caption here. The picture was taken at a Gaskella
Water Rocket Seminar held on Pike's Peak (Colorado) in the summer 2002.
We have no idea how "Glamour" got it.
Here are some resources for you.
Fin placement templates to help get fins in the correct place (pdf)
Rocket launcher parts list (Word)
Rocket launcher assembly diagram (pdf)
