Success! My team swept the trophies at the office picnic

[Nieander]

A couple weeks ago I posted asking for advice on the best approach to go for distance. Thanks to this board and other sources my team was sucessful beyond all reasonable expectation. We won the trophies for longest distance (163 yards) and longest average distance over three launches (159 yards). The next closest was about 105yards. (50 psi, 1.0L bottles)

Design philosophy: KISS and survivability/repairbility

Fins: 1/8" X2 X 2 balsa, profile sanded to be a symmetric airfoil, primed & painted. Joined to bottle with PL Premium tub & tile adhesive (three layers, fired with increasingly larger diamater objects - Sharpie cap, pinkie, index finger), covered when cured with a small piece of clear packing tape.

Bottle: SmartWater (long & thin), no modifications other than removing the label.

Nosecone: Cone 1 = styrofoam carved & sanded into a parabolic shape, covered with Bondo, sanded and painted. A thing of beauty... that shattered on impact. Cone 2 & 3 = cut off tops of other bottles, taped over the top from side to side to make them a little more aerodynamic. Attached to bottle with clear packing tape (easy to remove & replace).

Ballast: Enough to put the CG 1/3 back from the nose. The rules stated no metal so I used some limestone rocks from our driveway.

I'll post some pictures and a move later -- off to a minor leage baseball game soon.

[WRA2]

A couple weeks ago I posted asking for advice on the best approach to go for distance. Thanks to this board and other sources my team was sucessful beyond all reasonable expectation. We won the trophies for longest distance (163 yards) and longest average distance over three launches (159 yards). The next closest was about 105yards. (50 psi, 1.0L bottles)

Design philosophy: KISS and survivability/repairbility

Fins: 1/8" X2 X 2 balsa, profile sanded to be a symmetric airfoil, primed & painted. Joined to bottle with PL Premium tub & tile adhesive (three layers, fired with increasingly larger diamater objects - Sharpie cap, pinkie, index finger), covered when cured with a small piece of clear packing tape.

Bottle: SmartWater (long & thin), no modifications other than removing the label.

Nosecone: Cone 1 = styrofoam carved & sanded into a parabolic shape, covered with Bondo, sanded and painted. A thing of beauty... that shattered on impact. Cone 2 & 3 = cut off tops of other bottles, taped over the top from side to side to make them a little more aerodynamic. Attached to bottle with clear packing tape (easy to remove & replace).

Ballast: Enough to put the CG 1/3 back from the nose. The rules stated no metal so I used some limestone rocks from our driveway.

I'll post some pictures and a move later -- off to a minor leage baseball game soon.

Congratulations on your success. We all look forward to seeing your photos and video.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

A couple weeks ago I posted asking for advice on the best approach to go for distance. Thanks to this board and other sources my team was sucessful beyond all reasonable expectation. We won the trophies for longest distance (163 yards) and longest average distance over three launches (159 yards). The next closest was about 105yards. (50 psi, 1.0L bottles)

Design philosophy: KISS and survivability/repairbility

Fins: 1/8" X2 X 2 balsa, profile sanded to be a symmetric airfoil, primed & painted. Joined to bottle with PL Premium tub & tile adhesive (three layers, fired with increasingly larger diamater objects - Sharpie cap, pinkie, index finger), covered when cured with a small piece of clear packing tape.

Bottle: SmartWater (long & thin), no modifications other than removing the label.

Nosecone: Cone 1 = styrofoam carved & sanded into a parabolic shape, covered with Bondo, sanded and painted. A thing of beauty... that shattered on impact. Cone 2 & 3 = cut off tops of other bottles, taped over the top from side to side to make them a little more aerodynamic. Attached to bottle with clear packing tape (easy to remove & replace).

Ballast: Enough to put the CG 1/3 back from the nose. The rules stated no metal so I used some limestone rocks from our driveway.

I'll post some pictures and a move later -- off to a minor leage baseball game soon.

That sounds like great fun! Please post photos when you get a chance!

[Nieander]

Here's the movie of the third launch with the rocket named "Curley Joe". Not great quality, but it was fun when the thing just plain old dissapears. It really flew.

[Nieander]

And here are pictures of the rockets, including a close up of the fin profile:

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2825868017/a=139584730_139584730/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

And here are pictures of the rockets, including a close up of the fin profile:

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2825868017/a=139584730_139584730/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Thanks for sharing the pictures and video. It's great to see the forum helping people create winning designs!