KN/sorbitol motors tested

[Oliver Arend]

Go take a look at the pictures at www.shuttle-endeavour.de/motortests

Unfortunately not everything went as planned, esp. with the D20, but it was just bonds that failed, and if these hold up next time, we might have some very neat motors here.

Oliver

 

[PGerringer]

Is that you in the pics Oliver? It is nice to see that you surrounded the motors by rocks and stood far enough away from them.

I love the d20 pic. Ka-booom. Are you making these motors yourself? Better luck next time with the d20.

 

[Oliver Arend]

No, it was a buddy of mine who also made the motors. I just have all the video equipment and the computer to process it...

I don't know whether it was oversized igniters or a design flaw, but the D20 obviously overpressurized majorly, so it blew out the fwd closure. That's why it was gone with the wind just 3 video frames after ignition (0.12 seconds).

The G motor worked pretty well, it was just not supposed to lose its nozzle. That's why the size of the flame differs between the pictures, and also it burned more than 2.3 seconds instead of the calculated 1.3.

We'll probably just have to fix the bonding problem, and maybe look into the D motor design.

Oliver

 

[gerbs4me]

Those look like cool engines. I'm making my own also how do you make D engines? I only have Potassium Nitrate and Sugar mixture. What do you use for casing?

 

[Oliver Arend]

There is some place where you can order the casings, nozzles and whatever you need for a motor that Aerotech also uses - it's probably stuff that Aerotech produces but doesn't need.

Don't have a URL on hand right now, I'll see if I can find it.

Oliver

 

[rstaff3]

RCS distributes AT parts, or at least they used to. They might be 'down' while AT rebuilds. I just checked the site and it wasn't working. Anyway, heres the URL:

https://rocketmotorparts.com/

 

[Oliver Arend]

Yeah, that's the place I meant. Their website is up from here, it says:

Due to the recent fire at AeroTech, most of RCS's inventory was destroyed. However, we are now able to ship a growing number of items as they are being ordered and received. Please refer to the latest RCS order form for the current status of RCS products. This form will be updated regularly as more items become available.

Oliver