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How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:52 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
A strong and reliable parachute design is very important to anyone wishing to develop a water rocket with a recovery system. Any system from a simple Air Flap mechanism to the sophisticated ServoChron(tm) electronic deploy system relies on a well made parachute. This tutorial will reveal the secrets to easily making a parachute that will safely recover your water rockets.

The tutorial can be found at:

http://www.uswaterrockets.com/construct ... torial.htm

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 3:45 pm
by Water Rocket Expert
I thought they wanted us to post on this site not links so that it is always hear and if those links break its still here.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 3:46 pm
by Water Rocket Expert
I thought they wanted us to post on this site not links so that it is always hear and if those links break its still here.

So here it is


******Copyrighted material removed******

Replaced with link to original source:

http://www.uswaterrockets.com/construct ... torial.htm

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:49 pm
by Team Seneca
Not cool. :BD:

You shouldn't recycle the work of other people and not give them credit. LS:

We already have one too many CopyKatz on this forum. BO:

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:30 pm
by Water Rocket Expert
Okay I am giving them credit: MY POST IS ONE OF USWR. I DID NOT MAKE THIS MY SELF. THIS IS NOT MY WORK. Is that okay?

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:01 pm
by WRA2
Water Rocket Expert wrote:Okay I am giving them credit: MY POST IS ONE OF USWR. I DID NOT MAKE THIS MY SELF. THIS IS NOT MY WORK. Is that okay?
Copying and pasting content from another site to the forum without permission of the owner is a violation of the "terms of use" on this forum so don't do it again.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 11:58 pm
by Water Rocket Expert
Oh sorry.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 12:14 am
by U.S. Water Rockets
All of our tutorials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License, so you can quote from them in non commercial projects. But under this license you also are required to document the source and provide the link to the original content.

It would be preferable to simply link to the articles on our site, since we do make corrections and amendments to the articles, so the best way to insure that you are posting accurate information is to just provide a link.

Thank you.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:06 pm
by christheman200
Wow, you guys made a great tutorial.
About a year ago I was making a few parachutes for a school project on their shapes vs their fall time and it would have really helped if I had known about all the resources you guys have on your site!

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:20 pm
by katepeterson
I am making a water rocket for class and I am using circle table cloth for a parachute. The parachute works very well but I can't find a cone that covers the parachute and also comes off so that the parachute will deploy. Any suggestions on a cone to use that will cover a large parachute and will also come off easily?

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:01 pm
by bugwubber
katepeterson wrote:I am making a water rocket for class and I am using circle table cloth for a parachute. The parachute works very well but I can't find a cone that covers the parachute and also comes off so that the parachute will deploy. Any suggestions on a cone to use that will cover a large parachute and will also come off easily?
Exactly how big (diameter)? Also are we talking plastic disposable table cloth or something thicker?

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:35 pm
by katepeterson
It is a disposable tablecloth and it is 3 ft in diameter it also
has elastic around the edges to give it shape.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:18 am
by bugwubber
katepeterson wrote:It is a disposable tablecloth and it is 3 ft in diameter it also
has elastic around the edges to give it shape.
Ok I have some of that stuff. What size bottles are you using? Also, do you want to.put on a timer with release or just have the nose separate at apogee?

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:04 pm
by katepeterson
The bottle is made of 1 and a half 2 liter bottles. I am not allowed to use any timers or parachute deploys systems so yes I want the parachute to release at apogee.

Re: How to build a parachute for your water rocket

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:34 pm
by bugwubber
katepeterson wrote:The bottle is made of 1 and a half 2 liter bottles. I am not allowed to use any timers or parachute deploys systems so yes I want the parachute to release at apogee.
So there's a couple events that you'll have to deal with-

1. Prelaunch 1g
2. Launch- thrust phase 14g?
3. Launch- coast phase -2g?
4. Apogee- 0g
5. Descent

The other thing to remember is gravity acts on falling objects the same. In other words, things just don't "fall apart". Instead they tend to fall together.

So my advice is to add a bit of weight to the nosecone itself to keep the nosecone on during stage 1 and 2.
Add flaps on the bottom edge of the nosecone to keep the nosecone on during phase 3.
And finally, add a compressible spring like piece of memory foam or loop of PET bottle. to cause the nosecone and bottle to separate during phase 4.

Final thought- parachute is really large for that size of rocket. Unless you are trying to maximize time aloft, a smaller chute might be easier to manage.

Hope this helps!