anachronist wrote: ↑Sat Nov 05, 2022 4:56 pm
The challenge would be to devise a way to keep the rocket pressurized reliably as the UAV flies, and have some way to release the rocket when desired. You'd need to design the UAV to carry a rather heavy payload too, not just the rocket+water, but also the launch mechanism. I don't know how this would be done for a UAV the size pictured, but possibly a much larger one.
It could be done easily with a small 3d printed servo water rocket release mechanism, which I designed a year or so ago. The mass is around 35g, if the servo and O-ring aren't accounted for (another 15g or so).
The largest UAV I built can carry up to 1.25kg of payload, as long as I get a more powerful motor. The motors cost basically nothing. Even more payload, if I make the battery pack of the UAV smaller.
1,25kg means, that I could build roughly a 3L volume rocket with parachute mechanism and everything. Realistically, I would probably build the rocket out of 0,5l bottles, making it around 2l in volume. I've built one rocket like this before, and it flew up to 80m with 8 bar of pressure. The mass would be roughly 750g.
