Estes core burners?

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If they were to build coreburners now they should skip the B- build C's and D's.

I just realized that I missed a very obvious candidate- they should build a core-burning E engine! The E is the one that seems to suffer the most from low average thrust.
 
I just realized that I missed a very obvious candidate- they should build a core-burning E engine! The E is the one that seems to suffer the most from low average thrust.
I like the E9! If i need more thrust, there's always the Aerotech E15 and E30.
 
LOL, when I was young (10? 11?) I put a B-14 in a Big Bertha and let rip. It went up 75 feet or so like a bat out of he!!, paused a moment, and then plunged straight down. Wrecked it but good.

I still had a pair of the motors left and used them both in a three-stage Delta Star (?) about 5 years later. That launch was beautiful, although I never got the upper stage back. ;-)
 
LOL, when I was young (10? 11?) I put a B-14 in a Big Bertha and let rip. It went up 75 feet or so like a bat out of he!!, paused a moment, and then plunged straight down. Wrecked it but good.

I still had a pair of the motors left and used them both in a three-stage Delta Star (?) about 5 years later. That launch was beautiful, although I never got the upper stage back. ;-)
People talk about B14s now as if they could lift a car. Yeah, the B14 had a powerful thrust...but it only thrusted for a quarter of a second. It was, after all, just a B.
 
It seems to me that a B14 could be mass produced very safely using composite propellants.
Jeff

Estes BP motors are manufactured on a multi-turret press in less than a minute, and the Estes Mabels were described in a multi part article in Sport Rocketry several years ago.

Making composite motors uses totally different methods and equipment. Composite motors take a few day to make because the APCP grain needs to cure. Furthermore APCP must be batch mixed just before pouring into the casting tubes, or molds, amd can not be further processed until the propellant cures.

The retail price for a B composite would have to be on the high side of $10 jst to break even considering the extremely small market. Apogee used to make 13 mm B motots. They were expensive and there is not a commercial market for the at the price they have to charge for them, so you won't ever see a commercially successful B composite hobby rocket motor.

Bob
 
It all comes down to a "Coolness" factor. Who is the coolest dude?

A: A handsome young buck in his newly leased, fuel injected Charger with a three pack of SU D21s he just bought from valuerockets.com on his mobile phone,

OR

B: A crusty old fart in an original carbureted Charger he just paid $50,000 for, having to put additives into his gas to get it to run, and with a diamond pack of B-14's he just bought off of EBay for $50 plus shipping.


ANSWER: B The crusty old fart because he has A LOT more cash to spend trying to recreate what is was like back in the day and to compete with all those handsome young bucks!


Best post I've read in a long time. :2::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Snip

As you note I don't really see many single-stage applications in which a B14 would be preferable to a B4 or B6. Snip

Try flying a Sunward Galactic Wave or Hostile Projectiles V2 or V23 on a C6-3. The flights were so low and slow that eventually even the kids would no longer look when they were launched, everyone just walked away. Put a B14 into the Galactic Wave and it gets put into COSROC's photo album! People actually came back to the range to see the hefty little Hostile Projectiles V2 rip off the pad and land close by. More power, however short in duration, rules! I only have five of the legendary B14’s left so time is short for the kits above, then back they go to the Isle of Misfit Toys! The legend of the B14 lives on, and the Bards will sing of its virtues for a thousand years . . . well maybe not, but this BAR was glad he got to see them in action before they all disappeared.
 
I loved those B14s. I flew them many times back in the '70s. My favorite application was a Centuri 'Long Tom' two stage rocket. I'd use a B6-0 in the first stage, and a B14-5 in the upper stage. This gave me a nice slow liftoff until the B14 lit and then Bang! That rocket would just disappear. (part of my reasoning was that the larger nozzle on the B14 would make second stage ignition more reliable.) Back in the days before the D engines were introduced, the B14 was was one badass engine.
 
I suspect that commercial black powder rocket manufacturers discovered long ago what I discovered by making my own core burning BP motors: core burners are more fragile than end burners and are thus quite prone to fractured grains and potential "Cat-ass-trophies" upon ignition. :duck:
 
Hi,
According to Jerry, Estes used to make a 24mm D20 motor but they never sold it. Think of a super-sized B14 or B8 in 24mm.

I don't know what the plans are of the new owners of F.S.I. but if they bring back the D20, E60 and F100, those will be BP core burners.

Anybody remember the Rocketflite H220 coreburning BP motor? THAT was a coreburner!

Daniel
 
I discovered by making my own core burning BP motors: core burners are more fragile than end burners and are thus quite prone to fractured grains :duck:

True, but IIRC, there's ways to add plasticisers to BP so it won't be so fragile in a core burning motor. I think Rocketflite did this with their coreburning motors.
 
speaking of H220, buddy had one at MWP

clay nozzle looked shrunk a bit, needless to say
he didn't fly it! but said I could fly it in MY rocket :)

I'll make a spare parts rocket for that....

john
PB010145.jpg
PB010144.jpg
 
[video=youtube;-dRQ2vNxYLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dRQ2vNxYLA[/video]

I've always loved the smell of black powder in the morning!
 
Shocking stuff. Not so much the mega fireworks (sorry, not gonna call them rockets), but the weird mix of the pyrotechnics, drunken activities, and gender bender activities and things that looked like "toys" of a sort.
 
True, but IIRC, there's ways to add plasticisers to BP so it won't be so fragile in a core burning motor. I think Rocketflite did this with their coreburning motors.
You can do lots of things but Estes uses the same machines, clay and BP propellant formulation for all their motors. Changing the BP propellant composition requires a different manufacturing process which for one or 2 different motors makes no economic sense. The market is simply not there.

Bob
 
speaking of H220, buddy had one at MWP

clay nozzle looked shrunk a bit, needless to say
he didn't fly it! but said I could fly it in MY rocket :)

I'll make a spare parts rocket for that....

john
View attachment 246027
View attachment 246028

That one's REAL old. It doesn't have the inner aluminum casing like the later Silver Streaks did. And Rocketflite started in '89, so with that 1990 label you know it was an early motor!

I had a recent email exchange with Greg Dyben of Rocketflite about different applications of his igniters and got off on a Silver Streak tangent. He said he still has all the tooling and manufacturing equipment to start production again, it just requires *quite* an investment.
 
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