Small little rockets

[biziedizie]

We have the Quark and I was thinking of building something smaller. Does anyone have pics of what they've built?
How small can a person build a rocket?
Does the center of gravity come into play when buildindg such a small rocket?



Steve

 

[jflis]

The smallest i've ever built (and still fly) are based on some motors made by a Czech fella and provided to me by Art Rose at a Pearl River convention back in the 80's.

This picture shows my Boost Glider (wing span about 2") along side an Estes 24mm, 18mm and 13mm. Next is a MicroMaxx motor then the two tiny motors (a 25 and a 7) The number indicated the height expected of a 1 gram rocket.

https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/femto03.jpg

This next photo shows the same as above, from the end. here you can clearly see the clay nozzle on these motors. You could actually multi-stage them.

https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/femto02.jpg

Here is a pix showing a couple of the motors, a nose cone and a couple of models. My most enjoyable was a 1:1600 scale Saturn V (with escape tower!) that flew on these things

https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/femto01.jpg

jim

 

[biziedizie]

WOW! Now that's small! You just gave me some ideas. Thanks!


Steve

 

[Fore Check]

You might try looking through the first couple of pages of the "Low Powered Rocketry" forum for a thread that nearly has the same name as the one you started here, authored by Micromister. He's the resident MicroMax king - and those are *small.*

But Jim - THAT takes the cake. You could launch those indoors! Like in a gym or something.....

 

[biziedizie]

Thank you


Steve

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by Fore Check


But Jim - THAT takes the cake. You could launch those indoors! Like in a gym or something.....

LOL, that's just what we did at Pearl River!

https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/artrose03.jpg

 

[graylensman]

Originally posted by biziedizie
We have the Quark and I was thinking of building something smaller. Does anyone have pics of what they've built?
How small can a person build a rocket?
Does the center of gravity come into play when buildindg such a small rocket?

To answer your question, yes, Center of Gravity and Center of Pressure comes into play in every rocket. Notice the extreme sweep-back on your Quark fins. That is to help move the center of pressure rearward, because the center of gravity on a short model is close to the tail of the rocket. On larger, longer models, generally speaking, you won't see fins like that because the center of gravity is farther up the length of the bird.

The best source for this info is the Handbook of Model Rocketry by G. Harry Stine. If you do not have a copy go immediately to Amazon.com and order it!

 

[Papa Elf]

Originally posted by jflis
LOL, that's just what we did at Pearl River!

https://jflis.com/hobbies/rocketry/photos/artrose03.jpg

Nice launcher! Be careful not to burn your fingers!

 

[jflis]

oh, Art Rose got a *lot* of flack (mostly from CD Travares...) about this whole thing. Launching indoors, holding the launcher, not being 15 feet away from the launch pad, non-certified motors, etc, etc, etc.

The point that Art was trying to make was that this was *new* and did not conform to conventional model rocketry methods. He made sure that everyone *else* was back more than 15 feet and was accepting the risk on his own.

Even *with* the rules, there has to be an acceptable way to move outside the rules to explore new things and to discover if they would result in changes or modifications to the rules. Without such a *change* mechanism, HPR (for example) would have never become a part of the NAR.

Great motors though, and a whole lot of fun. I would love to see these brought into the sport rocketry realm some day (they are no longer made, unfortunately)

jim

 

[Micromeister]

Dang Jim I'd forgotten about Pearl River completely! It's one of the very few away events I actually attended. LOL I remember C.D. reading Art Rose the riot act! couldn't agree with your comments more

CP/CG is critical with micro models. actually a larger static margin can be helpful as the lose of propellant weight effects these little model to a greater degree than there larger brothers. fin area is also an issue, especially with PMC,Odd-Roc and Scale micros. I don't have a pic of the smallest Micro-Maxx I've flown.. basically a 1 1/4" long body tube with a foam nose cone and 3 3/32" wide very swept back fins (to move that darn CG back) and the motor. Ewt. was under 1gram OA length I believe was 1.785". Launched with one of the old .21 n/sec MM-1 motor it went out of sight and was lost. I didn't build that size for that reason..Not recoverable.
Next size up I guess would be a 4.75" long micro-Competition type P/d model or the 1/200th .388" dia x 4.5" Mercurry-Redstone PMC or maybe the 1/200 LEM PMC at just over an 1 1/4" depends on what ya want to call a rocket

 

[biziedizie]

Cool this is all very interesting If my rocket flies great on a 1/4 a will it also fly great on a 1/2 a? These little guys sure are fun to build and launch




Steve

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by Micromister
Dang Jim I'd forgotten about Pearl River completely! It's one of the very few away events I actually attended. LOL I remember C.D. reading Art Rose the riot act! couldn't agree with your comments more

oh Lordy! You've been to Pearl River?? Heck, we may have bumped into each other once or twice I was a *fixture* there for the last 5 years. The last 4 years I designed and kitted the anniversary kit (you wouldn't happen to have an **original** Praetor or D-Nelson Tomahawk, now would you??

If things work out, we're (FlisKits with CMASS) will be re-introducing our NEMROC conventions (hopefully, this year)

wild!
jim

 

[Micromeister]

Could very well be Jim

Here's that tiny S/D with a 1" x 10" streamer

 

[Karl]

Now those are SMALL! What motors are they?

 

[Micromeister]

Assuming; which is always bad.. your asking about the last post, The tiny S/D model flies on a MM-I #5662 .21 n/sec 1 sec delay Micro-Maxx motor. That's the older plastic casing (8 pk) motor. The newer Micro-Maxx motors MM-II #5663 is .35 n/sec, while almost twice the power (a low end 1/4A) have only a .5 second delay.