Simple water rocket

[Insomniac]

A few years ago I stumbled across this http://home.alphalink.com.au/~brucej/launch.htm
I made one seeing as the total cost was only a few dollars. The first time I shot this I was amazed. The rocket went incredibly high, nosed over and ended up in a tree about 100m downwind. They can also be used in rocket cars, but you must make them less powerful by putting a new blue gasket with only a tiny hole in it to reduce the water flow. (the gaskets you find in the lid of soda bottles)

IMPORTANT: SAND THE CAP BEFORE YOU GLUE IT!!!!!!!!! I have had an unsanded cap blow out and launch the rocket horizontally! Luckily it didn't hit anything of value.

I make my rockets with a balsa wood stick down each side, long enough to reach past the nozzle. I attach the fins to the end of these sticks (these rockets are unstable if you don't make the sticks long enough, because the water is sitting in the back of the rocket, when in a normal rocket the front would be heavier)

I use my launcher as a handheld one, not attached to a stake as they say on the site......when you shoot it you get dreched lol.

Has anyone else made rockets like these??????

EDIT: Look a few posts below this one to see a diagram of the rockets I use.

[jrrdw]

No, i havent made any like these. This post would be great for www.skyhighrockets.com

It's all rockets over there. I'm a member. Same name as here.

[Insomniac]

Dad probably won't let me sign up, but if you want you could just copy my post and put it there too.

[MrCrowley]

Why wont yur parents let you sign up? Dont you have your own computer?

[Insomniac]

I'm 13, don't quite have the cash for my own pc yet.
I dunno why they wouldn't let me sign up, but it took 6 months for me to persuade him to let me sign up on spudfiles and theopia. If I ask to sign up to another forum only a month after he let me on spudfiles he will probably just ban me from online forums altogether. Dunno why, he never really gave me a reason why he didn't want me signing up.

[garrettee]

Hey I challenge someone to design a high power pvc rocket design. With higher pressures I bet it would soar.

[Insomniac]

Well I Challenge somone to mount the launcher in a pvc pipe and make a shoulder launched rocket. Are there any pvc sizes that fit 600mL soda bottles???? That would be awesome.

@ garrettee I'm not sure a pvc rocket would work too well. Even if it was light enough to get some decent height, when it comes down it would shatter, and parachute systems would make it even heavier. It might work though.

[garrettee]

Your right. So make it top heavy, fill the cone with anything(?),and fire that baby at an angle and let shrapenel fly. lol

[Insomniac]

But then it will be too heavy to go anywhere.......just use fins that are as far back as possible.

[judgment_arms]

I’m in the process of making a shoulder fired water rocket system. One problem is the simple fact that the fuel is water, as is the exhaust, meaning when you fire it you’ll get a face full of water, not fun… I’m planning on putting a shield on it, like on the panzershrike. But first I’m going to make a rocket launcher system similar to some of the launchers from the civil war era. I’m planning on developing a fragmentation warhead for use in paintball, I play with an idiot that like to jump off houses so he wont mind a big water rocket shooting at him at 300FPS… Eventually I plan on making a tactical water rocket to deliver massive paint warheads for bunker busting, and taking out a whole field of armor or personnel, although I highly doubt that any paintball field will let me use any of them I think it’ll still be fun to make and use for “target practice”.

[Insomniac]

You REALLY dont want to get hit with one of these. I had this little plastic capsule and I put an ant in it and put it in the nosecone of one of my rockets, then fired at a tree from about 3 metres. The capsule had a small crack, but was still intact.......but the ant was splattered from the sudden deceleration. One of the bamboo skewers taped to the side of the rocket for the fin had torn off and gotten stuck in the tree. We broke the skewer in out attempts to remove it as it was so deep. I am sure these could break bones from close range. The only time you would be able to use it in paintball would be at long range so it has time to slow down (when empty the rocket slows down pretty quick, it's light and has a fair bit of drag)

[Recruit]

Insomniac that is very interesting and cool to.
And Jrrdw this has been posted on SkyHigh.

[judgment_arms]

You REALLY dont want to get hit with one of these. I had this little plastic capsule and I put an ant in it and put it in the nosecone of one of my rockets, then fired at a tree from about 3 metres. The capsule had a small crack, but was still intact.......but the ant was splattered from the sudden deceleration. One of the bamboo skewers taped to the side of the rocket for the fin had torn off and gotten stuck in the tree...

One word: ouch…. Yeah, it’s designed for long range artillery, hence the need for a fragmentation warhead. I was even considering a parachute to slow it down even more, but since you say it slows down quickly after all the fuel is gone I don’t think that will be necessary. How far, approximately, do the rockets usually go? Are we talking feet, yards, or light years?

[Insomniac]

Well, it all depends on how it is built. I've found that 600 mL bottles work best with this launcher, as they have less drag than larger bottles.

Either way, they go HIGH. I don't shoot them horizontally, but it probably goes pretty far. I would estimate 80 metres high, and It probably could get 100m at a 45 degree angle.
Build a simple rocket launcher like in the link in my first post and see for yourself how far it goes. I'll post a diagram of how I build my rockets in a few minutes.

EDIT: This is the type of rocket I build.

[Bluetooth]

I think the shoulder rocket launcher that launched these would be cool.