lakeroadster
When in doubt... build hell-for-stout!
Would a rocket of this type be legal in regard to NAR rules?
30 degrees, but who's counting.
If you are a lone wolf launching on private property and willing to accept responsibility for any consequences then that's nobody's business but yours.
Just my opinion.
Use fishing pole eyelets and a continuous curve.
20 degrees for HPR, I believe.30 degrees, but who's counting.
I dunno, though, if it were worthwhile I think we might have seen some examples..
Use fishing pole eyelets and a continuous curve.
But the trick is supporting the curved launch track... without shearing off eyelets
For everybody that saying "It doesn't seem worth it" and "why" ... the worth it part is to do something different. But then again I've always been like that.
Think of the visual.. and rocket sitting visual on a long track... the engine(s) fire and it hauls rolls down the track, slides up the radius, off the track and up into the sky. You could even build it as a 2 stage so it stages while on the track... where the booster stage is heavy so it lumbers along until the second stage fires, at which point the acceleration seems incredible due to the light weight of the second stage.
44 years ago I actually built a rocket with a track when I was in High School, but never launched it. The base was made from a 2x4 with a routed slot in the center. (Just a flat 2x4 about 6 ft long). It had two cover plates that were nailed to the top of the base. The rocket had (2) inverted T-Shaped metal hooks that hung underneath, one in the nose cone and one near the motor mount.
The rocket had a hinged door in the body tube so the chute would pop out the top.
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The same track could be easily made, then notches added to create the curve.
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Take it up a notch. Powered flyaway rocket sled, delayed rocket ignition while in mid air, maybe with a safety fuse ignited same time as the sled motor (with a clip whip). Varying the length of the fuse varies the delay. Rocket ignition will have to be while the subject is still moving at a stable speed. Probably breaking a bunch of rules. But...….
Great minds think alike [Chorus: So do ours!]. I was thinking that you could stage this. I’m envisioning more of a parallel staging setup with a sled, a booster, and a sustainer. Spitballing here, the sled would have a cluster of 2 motors that are powerful enough that they are pushing the rocket. The booster motor fires at the same time as the sled motors. The booster separates from the sled at the end of the rail and stages shortly thereafter. Sled and booster are under tumble recovery. In theory, you have a very high rod/rail exit velocity and a nice stable flight. Also, in theory there’s no difference between theory and practice.
Motor selection to make this all work, a suitable curved rod/rail, and a complex set of burn strings to hold it all together if motors don’t light are left as an exercise for the student.
Has anyone done it? Probably not. Is it a good idea for performance? Doubtful. Will it be awesome if it all works? Definitely. Is this too many rhetorical questions? Assuredly.
And that's why my very 1st post on this is does it break the rules.... I don't see where it does. It comes off the ramp perpendicular to the earth.
Again, where I launch, it doesn't matter. But I'd like to follow the rules in any event... it's part of the challenge.
My first thought when I read your first post was “No,” because I thought that too much could go wrong and I thought NFPA 1127 probably was worded to prevent this.
I’m still concerned about the “what can go wrong?” part, but my review today found nothing in NFPA 1127 that prohibits it. Technically, the challenge will be to control the course while changing the course. In doing so all of the impulse spent accelerating the rocket purely horizontally is spent once the rocket finally is vertical.
I would support the rocket rather than suspend it. Either way centripetal force will be significant.
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