Has anyone successfully built and flown a whistling rocket. Not just one that makes a whistling sound but actually has whistles on the body that can be heard over the motor firing when launched. Whistle design is not easy to find info on. Thanks for any input you have!
if the whistle is external to the rocket, might I suggest a whistle for each fin, so that the turbulence is symetrically distributed. Perhaps at the outside (vertical) edge of the fins ...
I was thinking about a childs toy picolo, but the air may be travelling much too fast to set up the vibration. Perhaps a spinning whistle, lke the whistle rings you blow hard into and they make a sound
I have heard rockets making buzzing sound as it shoots up, maybe find out how that was done and then do it without destroying the rocket, since I've read somewhere thats pretty much what happens right before the fin rips off the rocket.
+++ I don't know if this is what you might be talking about, but Estes has just released a rocket with whistles built into the design called the "Screaming Mimi." I've seen a couple fly and they work pretty good, although the whistle sound is not too loud. Joe A. South Louisiana Rocketry #8
Yes. It has been done for decades. Some folks use "wolf whistles" (similar to those used by Estes on the Screamin' Mimi but better quality). Others use regular 'coaches whistles' (plastic, not metal). I have not seen an intentional flute-like instrument glued to a rocket, but I have seen MANY dozens of rockets whistle that had holes in them. Specifically, Rocket Gliders and Helicopters with vent holes near the front end of the body tube. They can be loud.
most whistles will not be louder than the motor, so you want a rocket that gets up to speed very fast and has a short burning motor so that it is moving at 'whistle-speed' low enough for you to hear it. you also need the guy on the PA system to shut up and ask for the crowd to be quiet.
Keep the whistles symmetrical (2, 3, 4, etc.) and you will also get some cool interaction of the slightly different tones.
A Pratt Micro-Beacon is louder and does not care how fast it's going.....
I remember reading a while back about someone's attempt to use police-like whistles on a rocket, but there was a reason that they didn't whistle. It had something to do with no pressure differential, IIRC. I've made a few rockets that whistled, though. Rockets with split fins, such as the Phoenix, tend to whistle at high speeds, for example. I've also built and flown a ram-like rocket with a 29mm motortube inside of a hollow 3" tube. When I flew it on a motor capable of giving it some serious velocity (300mph+), it whistled. The problem is that it's tough to get a 36" chute out of a 29mm motor tube reliably. I'm about 2 for 5 on full deployments with it, so I never fly the rocket at big launches. Good thing it's built strong enough for multiple core samplings. ;-)
Mark Simpson NAR 71503 Level II God Bless our peacekeepers
They do fly nicely on 29mm 240H20's as well, though those aren't exactly "off the shelf". Problem is the rocket's not worth the walk to find it again..
Speaking as a pyrotechnist who has actually made whistling rockets, I can observe to your group that traditioanlly, whistling rockets are made with rocket motors that actualy whistle as an intrinsic function. See for example, Selcuk Oztap's articles in Pyrotechnica vol.XI. pages 49-54. See also my article "Screaming Banshee Rockets" in American Fireworks News #70, reprinted in Best of AFN III, page 50 (1995). and Barry Vreyen's article "Screamin Rockets" that appeared in AFN of May 1990. For those not adventurous enough to make their own motors, well, that's life. Can't get THESE from Estes...
Feel free to ask me by return e-mail only, about copies of Pyrotechnica, as I am a distributor.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.