A semi-outsiders view...

Brian Elfert wrote: ...

I've seen a bunch that didn't light, not the first time, not the nth time. I've seen rocketeers fail to fly in two days of trying. I've seen a few that burned a little and quit; the rockets fell down from

I've seen a few that worked and worked magnificently.

I'd be a lot more interested in "next generation" hybrid motors that addressed the reliability and gse problems. I liked the Aerotech fill-at-home tank system. I like the cost of the consumables. theoretically I like the nerd factor but these days I would really rather just go fly.

Convince a pipe extruder to extrude you new material, and that it won't gum up his million-dollar pipe extruder--then you get to return to the econonics of OTS plastic shapes.

The performance of hobby composites generally blows in comparison to other (professional) composite propellants. So what? The measured Isp of hobby hybrids very much overlaps with the measured Isp of hobby solid composites.

If you look at the thermochemistry of N2O+hydrocarbon, you'll find that there's very little performance advantage to any of them--including wax. Wax has a quirky gas-entrainment burn dynamic that makes mixing more efficient--but efficient mixing can likely be achieved in other ways. Consider the RattWorks X-flow injector, for example. Substantial boost in measured Isp, just by changing the injector geometry, and this is with OTS polypropylene billet for fuel.

I too have poured wax grains for experiments. But I could not consider producing them in bulk for my product--too much manual intervention. If "the industry" can produce extruded pipe-like structures with this new wonder material that I can chuck into a CNC lathe, and cut it just like PVC, PP, HDPE, or ABS pipe, I'd be interested for sure. Oh, and the resulting product needs to have similar compression-strength characteristics to the above-mentioned OTS plastics. Requiring a phenolic casting sleeve to support the hyrdostatic pressure for floating-injectors blows up the economics.