Detonator--- Ultimate Break Away Recovery

[BABAR]

Warning--- Requires at least a 100 yard radius of flat parking lot or mown grass for complete recovery!

Video Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ppJ5O1vYQ&feature=youtu.be

Since everything has already been done before, I won't claim this is original because some ( other and older) fart will tell me this is an old Estes design or something George Gassaway published a long time ago. Anyway, I thought it was fun.

The rubber band retention I have been using for my helirocs (Whopper Flopper Chopper, Dandelion Seed, Spyder) seemed like it might work for this.

Thing looks almost exactly like my 4 rotor helirocs on launch. Down the center is a BT-5 tube attached to a paper nose pyramid (the square version of a nose cone). The body tube acts as a "piston", the nose cone wraps around the OUTSIDE of the "sides" of the rocket (the "sides" would be "rotors" if this was a chopper.) Thus the nose pyramid acts as a retainer to keep them in place on ascent. The rubber bands (2) work the same as my helicocs, holding the "sides" in place AND holding the motor. At Apogee, ejection burns the rubber bands AND (hopefully) shoves the piston forward. Thus both the anterior pyramid retention and the posterior rubber band retention are released. The Nose Pyamid and body tube are attached (one piece) and have a some short streamers to slow them down on descent. The 4 "sides" are 1/8" balsa, with the fins integrated into the side (think FlisKits TiddlyWink). They flutter down, pretty slowly. Definitely an A8-3 rocket, as even with that engine, I am guessing Apogee at around 100 feet, scattered the 5 recoverable parts (4 sides and the body tube-Pyramid piece) over about 50 yards. DEFINITELY need good eyes (course would have HELPED if I'd painted it--- but as one poster here comments---some rockets need to earn their paint) to track the 5 pieces. Motor ejects, but this design WOULD support putting a piece of streamer on the motor for those of you in Brush Fire territory.

First flight was perfect. Second flight the rubber band I THINK held a moment, you can see on the post flight one of the "sides" is nearly burned through. I had debated putting a longer mylar strip on this, but I thought the "piston" would deflect the blast better. On my helirocs, I usually extend the mylar about 2-3 inches above the rubber band holes.

Anyway, I had fun (okay, I laugh like an idjit).

Definitely would NOT recommend this for an upscale, though!

 

[hornet driver]

COOL DESIGN. But ,holy burned fins batman, That was too close--I like the look though. Very cool.

 

[[POW]Eagle159]

Yea, Always neat to see an out of the ordinary rocket once in a while!

BRAVO

 

[Barracuda]

Sorry but everyone likes a good train wreck maybe it's supposed to do that when it reenters the atmosphere..nice vid

 

[BABAR]

Thanks for the encouragement, gentlemen. It really does help keep me going!

I may play with this design a bit (after I build the Corporate Escape Option, of course!)

I want to maintain safety considerations (blowing up on the pad would probably be suboptimal). Need to mess a bit with the mass and drag to get a lower apogee both for visual effect and to aid recovery (spread the "pieces" out over a smaller area).

But need enough altituded to make sure the ejected engine casing doesn't maintain enough velocity to potentially ping off the spectators. That would be poor form at best.

While this recovery method would probably tolerate (and even look cool) with a very late deployment (comes screaming in ballistic -- Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! and then deploys about 75 feet above the ground!), don't think I could reliably "time" that, and a really late deployment (76 feet later) would obviously be associated with a less fixable dissociation of parts (I think the technical term is "prang".) Probably would not endear me to the launch safety officer, either.:kill:

Next version will have shiny mylar tape along full internal length of the "sides" both for burn protection AND to make 'em easier to see on the ground at recovery. Also given this design can easily accommodate more mass, can probably do fancier paint job on the external length of the "sides". Adding a bit of mass should drop my apogee altitude a bit, and shouldn't affect the recovery at all, the "sides" just flutter and float down.

Maybe I'll change the name. Mayday? Gone Fission?

 

[JPVegh]

...Maybe I'll change the name. Mayday? Gone Fission?

How about the CATO? That's what Estes called theirs. Yes, I'm an old fart.

Sorry, I couldn't resist:wink:

 

[fyrwrxz]

...
While this recovery method would probably tolerate (and even look cool) with a very late deployment (comes screaming in ballistic -- Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! and then deploys about 75 feet above the ground!), don't think I could reliably "time" that, and a really late deployment (76 feet later) would obviously be associated with a less fixable dissociation of parts


Maybe I'll change the name. Mayday? Gone Fission?

:roll::roll::roll::roll::lol::lol::lol::rofl::rofl::rofl: Now THAT's my kinda humour!! Carry on Sir!