Jet Hitch Thrusters

I honestly thought it was a joke when they posted it on FB.

I am purely speculating here, but is there an ulterior motive to this? If it's a "thruster" for your truck, why give it a Tripoli/NAR letter designation? If they were solely intended for a visual display for your truck, seems like you'd just describe the burn characteristics (effects, burn time, etc.). It's not like a K motor with a max thrust of 100# is going to do anything appreciable to a Ford F150.

Could this be a sort of circumvention to the Tripoli testing process? I assume that even though they are not recommended for rockets (per their disclaimer) that they could be flown at Tripoli Research launches. This has insurance liability written ALLLLLL over it.

I smell trouble, just what every dumb @## needs, access to serious rocket propulsion in an non-NAR/TRA safety code environment. Also how about the backblast area (military term, I find suitable to horizontal lauched rocket).

I don't see Jimmy DingDong remembering to yell out to the spectators behind him "Back Blast Area, CLEAR".

As a demo for a special effects guy we fired an AT K458 attached to a Ford Ranger. Moving at 25 mph on a dirt roadi it not give enough thrust to maintain speed.
It takes a lot of motor to get a person in a vehicle moving fast. The rocket drag cars of the good old days were real monsters.

M

I think their thrust to weight ratio is a bit off...

Did anyone notic the truck says Aerotech on the side?

RAHagen said:

I think their thrust to weight ratio is a bit off...

Did anyone notic the truck says Aerotech on the side?

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The site says they are part of RCS.

6000 lb truck with 100 lbs thrust, 1/60th G, wild and crazy!!

M

How silly!!!

RAHagen said:

I think their thrust to weight ratio is a bit off...

Did anyone notic the truck says Aerotech on the side?

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I guess these would fall into the category of "Consumer Aerospace".

I hope they have seriously segregated this division from the rest of the company behind some legal firewalls or we may not have aerotech motors much longer. What happens when a 98/15360 catos a few feet behind a kid on a dirt bike, go-kart, or snowmobile?

MClark said:

The site says they are part of RCS.

6000 lb truck with 100 lbs thrust, 1/60th G, wild and crazy!!

M

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Just for fun, I think you'd have to convert it to a 2721 kg truck with 340 newtons of force, giving an acceleration of 0.125 m/s/s, which turns out to be around 1/80 of a G. If the motor burned for 3 seconds, your velocity change would be .375 m/s, or about 0.83 MPH.

I wonder what happens when you CATO...

COrocket said:

I wonder what happens when you CATO...

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New paint job? Explain that one to the insurance company....Well, Uh, You See......

My truck may be in need of work, but I love it none the less and would never insult it by doing something stupid to it like trying to attach a rocket motor.

MarkH said:

https://www.jethitch.com/

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Yeeeahhhh....I don't get it. I would love to see those sold as new DMS motors! Much more practical...

marcusSRG said:

Yeeeahhhh....I don't get it. I would love to see those sold as new DMS motors! Much more practical...

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They can't give us some decent single use 13mm composite motors but they have the resources to make rockets for trucks.

WTF, They even have Sparkies. Wonder if they are street legal.

You know, it sucks that we put forth as much effort as we do to make sure that rocketry doesn't get a bad name only to have one of our vendors provide the potential for it all to go horribly wrong on us. Not only do we risk losing Aerotech do to lawsuit, etc. if some jackwagon pulls a stupid with this, but the gubmint would likely regulate the hobby out of existence.

Now we know why they are behind on shipping new cases with Rouse Tech out of the picture.

AlfaBrewer said:

You know, it sucks that we put forth as much effort as we do to make sure that rocketry doesn't get a bad name only to have one of our vendors provide the potential for it all to go horribly wrong on us. Not only do we risk losing Aerotech do to lawsuit, etc. if some jackwagon pulls a stupid with this, but the gubmint would likely regulate the hobby out of existence.

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As soon as one of those goes off on an expressway somewhere the clampers will come down big time. Still hope it's some kind of joke. Can't believe a manufacturer is promoting what I'm sure most of us would call very stupid/ dangerous acts with their products.

This is waste of time. They should focus on rocket skates.

A 98mm darkmatter motor going off in traffic... Let that sink in.

I'm pretty sure strapping this onto my car would double the horsepower...

l hope this is a joke

ThirstyBarbarian said:

This is waste of time. They should focus on rocket skates.

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The must have item for Coyotes!

ThirstyBarbarian said:

This is waste of time. They should focus on rocket skates.

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I say strap one on Super Girl.

mpitfield said:

I say strap one on Super Girl.

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:rofl:

Black Jack or Smokey Sam reloads would be good for dealing with speed traps!

I just called the number on the site, it is AeroTech HO and I spoke with Jennifer I think her names was. This is no joke, this product is real and they are selling these to anyone 18 or older.

I asked what benefit or purpose there was and she said it's simply meant as a shock and awe. I asked about safety concerns and she specifically said it's no different than the hobby rocketry community. That is when I told her I was from that community and that this is not like the rocketry community as we have rules and regulations from our respective governing bodies as well as certification process that involves education and mentoring to undergo before we are permitted to purchase an HPR motor. But she did not have much to say as she is just the messenger and I got the feeling she was not thrilled to be discussing it...I wouldn't blame her.

I did tell her that I felt other members of the rocketry community may reach out to AT to voice their opinions (435) 865-7100

I believe this is a discretionary mistake on AeroTech's side and I really hope it does not have a negative effect on them, the industry, or the hobby.

This product is sure to attract boneheads so keep an eye out on YouTube for their 15 seconds of fame

It won't take very long for some idiot to kill themselves with these.
I'm disappointed in Aerotech.

So it's definitely real. How stupid. Someone is going to "shock and awe" themselves right into the grave. Or more likely the victim will be an innocent bystander. "Hey, Bubba! Watch me smoke this guy behind us!"

How could such a product even be legal?