psymon Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 I have several commercial distress rockets. After the 5th 2 of them didnt launch. Would you guys be interested in seeing one of these things dismantled? If anyone has any objections please let me know. The launch charge failed to ignite the rocket so they are now in quite safe condition as they can't ignite accidently as there isnt a firing cap there... I can post some pictures of every part and maybe then someone on here can try to make a parachute rocket.
ActionTekJackson Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 Snap dude, that'd be awesome! I look forward to seeing this.
Crazy Swede Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 I have several commercial distress rockets... What brand are they?
psymon Posted November 8, 2006 Author Posted November 8, 2006 They are IKAROS and PAINS WESSEX. My brother in law owns a life raft company and he services them. Parachute flares are part of the life saving equipment. When they become out of date I get them. If all ok I will post the photos with dimensions tomorrow.
optimus Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 If anyone has any objections please let me know. I wouldn't worry - they're surprisingly easy to dismantle. Just remove the top cap and slide the rocket out. The flare also comes out easily. Careful with that motor though - Im' sure you're aware how powerful they are Weird stabilisation... What are you going to do with the flares?
Cherbanov Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 I am going to make a paracute flare for ground illumination, so it would be nice to see how the are looking
psymon Posted November 8, 2006 Author Posted November 8, 2006 The flares I can just incinerate in my garden incinerator. Yeah I have dismantled one of the flares already. They are really easy to take apart. The stabilisation is achieved by spinning the motor. Like a stinger missile but rather than having a side hole they have three nozzles at the base of the engine plus a thrust nozzle. I shall put photos on there with a ruler for scale. I have no idea what the engine is made out of, any formulas for the end burner would be good posted here. And yes they are VERY powerful motors. IIRC the motors use Carbon Monoxide as the thrust gas as it can exit the motor at a faster rate than any other gas.Anyway all will be revealed tomorrow when I shall post a selection of pics on here.
Crazy Swede Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 ...IIRC the motors use Carbon Monoxide as the thrust gas as it can exit the motor at a faster rate than any other gas...Woa, now I really don't follow? How did you get that idea? Most rocket motors for distress signals are made of potassium perchlorate and phenolic resin. Since there will be a lot of solid potassium chloride in the exhaust gasses I really doubt if it matters if the fuel/oxygen-ratio is balanced for carbon dioxide or monoxide (i.e. fuel rich or fuel lean composition!).
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 It was something I was told a while back. Thought I would post it to see if there is any truth in it. If you say its wrong then probably it is. I am no expert on the motor fuel composition. Thats why I asked if anyone had any formulas. Thanks for putting me right...
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 OK people I have taken it apart. Please note I am only doing this to give you all an idea of how one is put together. I am not trying to make this a perfect make your own parachute tutorial. Sorry I cant weigh anything at the moment as my scales battery has just gone flat. I will post weights in a later message.Here goes.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 Above is the outer case and inner rocket motor plus flare.Below is the parachute loaded in the end of the case. The case had a small lid held in place over the top of the parachute.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 Here is the ejection charge. When I pulled out the parachute (very easily slid out) there was 1.31 grams of BP grains as an ejection charge.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 This is the flare and parachute. The flare is a red strontium/magnesium based 15,000 candela block on the left of the photo. It burns for approx 60 seconds and can be seen for 40 miles.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 This is a close up of the flare composition. There is a spring coil attaching the flare to the strings of the parachute. I guess this is to prevent heat transfer to the parachute strings.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 At the base of the rocket half way up the aluminium tube (first picture) the motor is placed. This is showing the VERY high energy end burning rocket motor. Its very interesting to see that these parachute flares are made up of several component parts.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 This is the end burning motor showing the thrust nozzle in the centre and three small bumps around the outer edge. The bumps are angled sideways obviously creating turning thrust to the motor on its ascent. So these devices are spin stabilized like stinger missiles.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 The final photo showing a close up of one of the side thrusters.I hope this has been informative to you all and hopefully later today I can get some weights and a couple more photos on here.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 Some important further info. The side thrust exit holes are around 2mm. The bottom main rocket thruster is 6mm diameter. The motor burns for about 5 seconds and deploys the parachute flare at 1000 feet (300 meters).When they go up they produce hardly any flame out of the rocket, in fact its almost quite difficult to see the rocket ascending. However the smoke blown out is amazing. It fills a 30meter square garden with a dense fog. I guess thats because of the high energy fuel being burnt and the thrust being put out the back of the motor.
rocket Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 It’s interesting to see how it’s put to together and all the components, the rocket motor looks very crude to me but it obviously does the job. Great pics btw.
psymon Posted November 9, 2006 Author Posted November 9, 2006 Thanks for that. Yes I agree its very interesting to see how commercial things are made. Hopefully now some people may like to try and make something like this. I have added one more picture showing the aluminium case being slit open and the respective parts being placed back in the correct position. The only thing you cant see in the photo is the ejection charge which was placed directly above the motor and below the flare parachute.
kwinchee Posted March 26, 2007 Posted March 26, 2007 Ironic i did this last week with some out of daters i had from the boat.I will put some videos of the flare charge burning and the rocket being fired. Cheers
h&k machineguns Posted March 28, 2007 Posted March 28, 2007 I witnessed probably over 200 of these being done this last weekend at the Big Sandy machinegun shoot. Everywhere they were being launched in the daytime and night.I have 6 of them ,and know a guy that has probably over 50 of them. Amazing how inexpensive they are for what you get. I think they are $10 a piece,but if you get 10 or more they are around $6,then 100 or more,I think I heard $3 a piece.. They move actually pretty fast,and go very high. I'm thinking of mounting one on the end of a whistle rocket,somewhat like a 2 stage deal.I'm thinking 4'000 + feet
kwinchee Posted March 29, 2007 Posted March 29, 2007 there you go we popped the launcher tube so i had to jerry rig a fuse out of the BP from the flare comp ignition grain
h&k machineguns Posted March 30, 2007 Posted March 30, 2007 That Vid doesn't do those things justice. I can't believe I didn't take any video's last weekend of those things. Guys were doing them day and night for 3 days straight.I am wondering why no one has takin the motor part and rigged it up to a hobby rocket body,or even putting a firework payload on them. They are super cheap compared to motors like the F and G motors. Next year when everyone is doing those flares out of their hands at that big shoot they hold every year,I am going to mount a complete flare like your pic to the end of a 1 pound whistle rocket and adding fuse to go up in the hole. It will be like a 2 staged rocket,but the flare and chute will be much higher than usual.I may even do it from a 6 pound whistle rocket,so I can get 2.5K feet before the motor flare even takes off.
kwinchee Posted March 31, 2007 Posted March 31, 2007 I think thay would be perfect for a 2 stager as the launching device thay are insainly powerful. I'm gonna do a s stagere wih a flare motor as a lifter and then have a whistle mix/benzonate motor as the second stage and a nice big salute as the payload and see how high i can get it
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