Why not "Combat" Model Rocketry?

Back in fifth grade or so, a buddy and I use to be into model rockets. Well one day, while searching my older brother's room for his playboys, we found instead a great big box of cherry bombs. And with great delight we stole a big handful of them. Then built a bunch of rocket/bombs by simply gluing fins and a launch tube directly to the Estes rocket motor and taping the cherry bomb to the top. And let the ejection charge light the fuse.

We soon realized what fun it would be for us to go to the opposite sides of the field and see who could come closest to hitting the other with our little rocket bombs. It was a blast!

By the time our parents were alerted, we were getting the range down to about fifty feet or so, enough to make it exciting. I wonder, how could we turn that into a sport?

Jonathan

s
Reply to
jonathan
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I dunno, but I may have found you a sponsor:

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Dave

Reply to
David Spain

I'm not sure how many NAR rules you're violating here. Beyond that, you may have been violating one or more laws...

File this one under stupid things that almost got you killed as a kid and don't mention it again.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Findley

Oh we had the safety issues handled, you bet!

His folks were loaded, and had a great big back yard with a field surrounded by woods. All the night launches were from there.

With the strategy being that the higher they went up, the less likely anyone would figure out where they came from. A cherry bomb on top of a C6-5 makes a rather nice red fireball and bang at night. We quickly learned however, like during the first launch, that it's a very good idea to shorten the fuse on the cherry bomb as much as possible. Out of concern for the neighbors of course.

I was the sane one, after we used up the cherry bombs, he started emptying out a half dozen rocket motors or so, putting all the fuel into a plastic bag and stuff it on top of the ejection charge. He'd launch 'em like it was the Fourth of July.

One day he came over with his greatest creation to date. The fuel from twenty motors stuffed on top of a two stage rocket, and he wanted to launch it from my folks back yard ..of course.Which was normal sized, not like his.

I chickened out and suggested he just light the bag off on the ground, to be..eh hum..safe. So when he was ready to light the fuse, I walked over and peered just over his right shoulder, and he said something about not having enough fuse and was using a sparkler instead. I distinctly remember asking myself... "he's gonna use a sparkler for what?" ....AND BANG!!!

Just as soon as he lit the sparkler it went off in his face. A nice 6 foot fireball I would guess, enough so we were inside of it, I know that for sure. Left nice burn marks outlining his geeky glasses, and his v-neck shirt, and I only lost the right side of my hair, due to my cautiously peeking over his shoulder.

s

Reply to
jonathan

Wear Kevlar clothing and a full helmet ?

Reply to
Scott M. Kozel

Sounds like a Kevlar straight jacket might be appropriate

Reply to
Jim

Trollin' trollin' trollin'

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

More like reminiscing, didn't everyone like blowing things up when they were kids?

Reply to
jonathan

Which is why Mythbusters is so popular with kids & older kids alike.

Reply to
Polyp

Scott M. Kozel wrote:>

I never did shoot one at anyone or anything, but I have to 'fess up to putting a explosive impact-fused warhead on a model rocket to try out the detonation system for bombs to be carried on a large RC aircraft at a fly-in. ...worked like a charm. :-) Unfortunately, the actual bombs had such a good aerodynamic form that they would sail hundreds of feet forward from the drop point, and were almost impossible to accurately aim at a target on the ground. Really needed a RC dive bomber for this concept to work, although I did get production cost down to around twenty-five cents per bomb circa 1976.

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

Well, I'll bet you never got into a bottle rocket fight with the girl across the street when you were both around 15, and saw her jump straight into the air when one went between her legs at around knee height. :-D

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

Gawd..............I can just see a small town police chief crowing about arresting a terrorist who was obviously planning an attack.

Throw away that key...................Trig

Reply to
trigonometry1972

Not for Cherry Bombs...those accouterments must be reserved for M-80s:

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H-Bomb of fireworks. ;-)

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

I'm beg to differ with this link on two points: /quote Before you send me an e-mail message arguing that flash powder is a high explosive, here is further discussion of that subject. By flash powder, I mean the chemical composition inside an M-80, which is a mixture of various substances, including potassium perchlorate. The scientific community defines a high explosive as one that detonates when unconfined. A low explosive is defined as one that deflagrates - not detonates - whether confined or unconfined. The distinction between "detonate" and "deflagrate" is the key difference here. A low explosive, that deflagrates, generates pressure waves in the air that are slower than the speed of sound, while a high explosive, which detonates, generates pressure waves that are higher than the speed of sound /endquote

1st point:

Deflagration and detonation refer to the speed of reaction through the explosive itself, not the blast effect through the air.

'Slow' explosives deflagrate, the reaction progresses through the material at a speed below the speed of sound through that material.

'Fast' explosives aka superexplosives, allow the reaction to progress at the theoretical maximum speed, the speed of sound through the material.

IIRC, black power is an example of a slow explosive, (well explosive when confined).

Nitroglycerin, PETN and RDX fall in the super-explosive class.

2nd point: 'Generates pressure waves that are higher than the speed of sound?'

Eh?

Dave

Reply to
David Spain

I actually lived in a state where fireworks were illegal so had no access to them, that is a funny concept though. Now I live in Oklahoma where you can buy fireworks and see the amount of damage done every summer via grass fires and pop bottle rockets on wood shingle roofs in

100 degree weather in early July and have developed a bad taste for them unless handled professionally. The model rocket part is great though, have flown my share of them when I was a kid.

Jim

Reply to
Jim

I can't get my wife to attend airshows because she's convinced she'll get killed and now I've got to make sure she never reads this or it will be curtains for RC fly-ins as well. (Not that she'd *voluntarily* want to go to an RC fly-in anyway)...

;-)

Dave

Reply to
David Spain

Does anyone else besides me notice how strange the mating rituals get the further west one lives?

;-)

Dave

Reply to
David Spain

Para-fragmentation... no dive bomber required.

rick jones

Reply to
Rick Jones

I've been to a lot of RC fly-ins, and they are a lot more dangerous than any airshow (unless the Russians show up of course; then it seems you can count on a MiG or Sukhoi crashing at some point during the display). The problem is when something goes wrong with the radio, as then you can end up with a aircraft coming out of the sky at over 50 mph with a buzz-saw and chunk of metal at the front. I've had one crash around five feet from me, and another one would have hit my father if he hadn't used the bottom of his shoe to deflect it as it came at him at around two feet in the air.

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

The Freudian implications of the incident didn't escape me at the time. :-)

Pat

Reply to
Pat Flannery

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