What is a 'sparky' motor

Hey everyone,

I am super new to this stuff and am just curious about something. I keep seeing the term 'sparky' used a lot when talking about motors. I was wondering if there is a certain criteria for a motor to be a sparky motor, or if that is a general descriptor of solid fuel motors. Any clarification is helpful, Thank you!!

A sparky motor producing visible glowing particles other than the normal exhaust flame.
NFPA-1125 (for motor manufacturers) describes the limit in metal particle size and quantity. The safety codes have more restrictions for sparky motors.

Its an effects motor. Titanium sponge is added to the solid fuel so that when it burns, it emits large burning sparks of titanium. Its loud, bright and very impressive. Youtube search for sparky motor and you'll get the visual but not the audio.

This is a sparky motor, at work...


Here's the actual launch... and the audio from the fire that resulted from it....

heada said:

Its an effects motor. Titanium sponge is added to the solid fuel so that when it burns, it emits large burning sparks of titanium. Its loud, bright and very impressive. Youtube search for sparky motor and you'll get the visual but not the audio.

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Not necessarily titanium sponge to be a sparky motor.

jsdemar said:

Not necessarily titanium sponge to be a sparky motor.

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True but the majority of the time it is.

Several years ago I had two RocketFlite G160-ss5 motors that were manufactured back in the 1993 to 1994 time frame. They are black powder motors that used powdered iron for sparks. Despite their age they worked great and made lots of sparks.

flames, sparks and noise! this is a AMW K1000 skid, now unobtanium...except for in my basement....

K'Tesh said:

This is a sparky motor, at work...
Here's the actual launch... and the audio from the fire that resulted from it....

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It was a fail because of the fire?

billdz said:

It was a fail because of the fire?

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No. The nose weight needed to make it stable (a can of Diet Coke) loose upon landing and popped out of the top of the nosecone. With the help of Rob Appleton, I was able to repair the nosecone with some of his Union Jack duct tape and some cushioning, flew it again and got my L1 cert. Rob was a major supporter of the project, and I certainly couldn't have done it without him.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/say-hello-to-the-newest-l1-certified-trf-member.128868/

J396 Loki Spitfire. Sparkies are fun to fly but man do they wear out rails.

Thanks everyone! Superful and concise answers!

Aerotech Dark Matter, Loki Spitfire, Cesaroni Skidmark, and back in late 80s, the original US Rockets Firestarter are all like the pics above. All also have the unique roar. Bigger is better Aerotech also makes a Metalstorm, white fire and sparks (see J340M)

When I took the NAR L2 exam years ago, it mentioned "titanium sponge" over and over. "Wut?", I said. I never heard this term used in the wild. "Sparky" is a much more common term.

Here is one I took last month at TTRA Tampa -

Love the Loki Spitfires

Arsenal78 said:

J396 Loki Spitfire. Sparkies are fun to fly but man do they wear out rails.View attachment 404206

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mpitfield said:

Love the Loki Spitfires

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To me, CTI and Aerotech have more dark smoke to their sparkies but Loki has much more sparks which makes it for me.

Here is my 54mm CF min diameter launching out of a tower on the Loki K830 to 16,400 @ Mach 1.9



Same rocket, same motor, same alt, same performance, different launch UFF3 2016, bad cell phone camera.

That LOKI load looks a lot like the Sharon's Sparkler load I flew last weekend. It's an L1001 in a 54/2550 casing, flying in my 54mm MD Blackhawk.







You can see the fly away rail guide coming off the fin in the second shot. The three second burn took it to 14,384 ft.
For some reason, I can't load the second shot, bummer.

Wayco said:

That LOKI load looks a lot like the Sharon's Sparkler load I flew last weekend. It's an L1001 in a 54/2550 casing, flying in my 54mm MD Blackhawk.

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L1001 Sparky, EX? It looks like a great formula from a visual effect perspective! I have two OOP 38mm Loki J1001 loads.

Hey Wayco, how far away did you find the fly away rail guide?
care to share your sparky formulas either PM or on the ex board?

My one and only sparky flight. Half-scale Apache, flying without a booster, on an M1770.


I personally don't like the motors. I would rather not waste performance on pyrotechnics.

An H115 in my scratch built Nike Smoke. Considering the name it seemed the perfect motor.

cbrarick said:

Hey Wayco, how far away did you find the fly away rail guide?
care to share your sparky formulas either PM or on the ex board?

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The rail guide landed about 30 ft. away, if I remember correctly.
We cast a four grain 98 Sharon Sparkler 2 and lit it at Airfest in 2022, the nosecone made it to about 300 ft. but the fincan burned on the pad. Also had a couple 75mm loads CATO that year. Didn't scale up well, and we are working with John Demar to adjust that formula.

The Deuce is made for sparkies as it's all the show. My avatar is the 98 mm version on Aerotech M1075s.
Here's an onboard view with 54 mm K motors.

Sparky Motors are a landowners nightmare.

Hobie1dog said:

Sparky Motors are a landowners nightmare.

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On a sod farm.

cwbullet said:

On a sod farm.

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Or a northern Peat farm where vegies are grown under the dirt. If it catches fire, the whole dirt farm can be ruined. I have seen Peat Dirt burn.

Agree sparky motors are impressive but I was told in a mixing class they detracted from the motor impulse and wrecked havoc on graphite nozzles.
I still think they're cool. Mixed 'em for research and flew them but they did seem to beat the heck out of graphite. Single use nozzles, no big deal although I cleaned out some of the phenolic ones when I needed to slightly oversize the nozzle bore for a research single use motor and flew one three times before I retired it. I used a higher motor impulse each time so the bore had to be enlarged to prevent over pressurization anyways. Burnsim program was helpful.

At the time I had a Prefect with three lathes with one dedicated for graphite nozzles and would turn anything I wanted for free as long as I provided the graphite. He's deceased now unfortunately but "those were the days my friend and never thought they'd never end"! I wonder what happened to the lathes he had? One was so large he had it lowered onto a concrete pad by a crane then put the building around it! Had to get a single to three phase converter to run it electrically.

When cutting nozzles on the graphite lathe, he took one of the smaller lathes outside 'cause the graphite powder would go "everywhere" in his garage shop. It was a spring/summer job mainly to cut nozzles. Oh he also made/cut research motor casings of which I still have several with associated nozzles. Man he was hardcore into research. I was glad to be involved with it and pardon the pun, had a blast. Oh, some of our test motors ended up as a "blast" during tests and had a few casing pieces flying by me. We started standing farther away after that happened. No one ever go hurt though. Kurt