Sooner Boomer
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I've never had a rocket zipper (yet...). An idea came to me about a way that might help eliminate them. It seems like a good idea, so someone has probably already thought of it, but here goesThe idea is to have a thick, perforated disk attached to the recovery harness in a way that the disk can go down inside the body tube, but the attachment point on the harness keeps the disk from going past about an inch or so inside the body tube. This assumes the harness is attached to the motor mount, or somewhere to the aft of where the parachute sits in flight. When the ejection charge goes off, everything is pushed out the top of the rocket, but the disk comes up short. It keeps the recovery harness centered in the body tube. The diameter (just under body tube diameter) and thickness help spread out the force on the harness when the parachute opens. The harness should never touch the top lip of the body tube (when it's under tension). For lack of a better term I call this a snubber
An example of what the disk (snubber) could look like
Cross section in flight
On deployment of parachute
The openings in the disk should be as big as possible, and could be a varity of shapes or numbers. It could be easily 3D printed.
An example of what the disk (snubber) could look like
Cross section in flight
On deployment of parachute
The openings in the disk should be as big as possible, and could be a varity of shapes or numbers. It could be easily 3D printed.