In my youth, I also was a model rocket enthusiast, and, I admit, I still
have leanings towards that path.  For instance, I really do need to get
around to building my really nice model rocket launch controller (PIC
controlled, of course).

I keep thinking that I should go back to doing it a little, but I can't find
the time...

One thing that always bugged me when I was doing model rocketry was the loss
of rockets.  Now that I know a bit more about electronics, I'm thinking of
ceating a radio location device.  Which I'm sure will entail a PIC.  And,
maybe, a GPS ;)

Now, I begin to wonder about the fesability of building multi-stage cluster
rockets.  Like 3 engines per stage, 2 stages, engines fire in parallel, use
a mercury switch to fire the second stage from a small Lead-Acid Gel cell.

I wonder if there's a model rocketry list out there....  I guess I'll have
to find it when I find time ;)


> Ahhh... In my youth I was affiliated with Rocket Research Institute, the
> youth oriented, basement bomber wing of Aerojet General. We designed and
> built " Model " rockets. Six foot long tubes of steel filled with
> Zinc-Sulfur fuel in little paper cartridges. One experiment, germane to
> this slightly o.t. thread, was a steam rocket. This was a welded stainless
> pressure chamber with a nozzle and burst plate. It was heated from the
> outside by a number of furnace burners, inside a trashcan shield, fed with
> natural gas from a tank.
>
> At the burst pressure, it took off....flew about 1/3 mile if I recall. The
> landing was, shall we say, abrupt. If one were to manage the system
> differently, a pic would be perfect for pressure determination, and
> couldlift pins out of a burst plate restrainer....hmmmm....
>

--Brendan

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