Date 01/05/05
Ed and Don are on the fast track for hybrid motors. Here are their next test session videos.
Dons - hybrid motor.
Ed1 - second hybrid motor
Date 1/22/05 at 11:30 am.
Next Don's was prepping his motor and realized that he had no O-rings for his motors so he was not able to light any today. Too bad because he had three motors to fire today. Ed started working on his next reload. This grain had less Zinc and more wax so he was looking to see a higher output at the same case pressure from this motor. This motor also had about 20 grams less of a sugar grain to light the motor. After he got everything setup and all the cameras where rolling we started the countdown. Just like the other motor the white smoke started to pour out and again the sound of a jet engine starting up, but the noise started to die down and the smoke density was less and less. No fire from the motor. Upon inspection, we found out that there was not enough of a sugar grain to burn through the disk this time. "Hey that is why we experiment!" Ed said. At that point I had to leave to get back home. Chip's also had to leave but Ed and Don stayed behind to try a couple more times.I left my camera so Ed and Don could capture the rest of the day’s events. Since the second motor didn’t light, Don and Ed started thinking about another way to light the motor since the original sugar grain was gone and they did not bring any others because it was cast directly into the grain. They had some pyrogen grains (small firearms charges) that they were using to light the sugar grain. They decided to try putting a few of these. If I had been there I would have told them they would burn too fast and in basically blowup. They had no other option and since this was an old design and these were the last of the old design grains they went for it. The video shows it all. They light the motor and blew out the threads on the line connection into the forward closure. So they never got the second motor to light With the last grain left and another threaded line fitting Ed loaded up the last motor. After prepping the stand, motor and data collection devices, the countdown happened. The sugar grain started with it’s typical buildup sound and then right as the motor lit there was a pop with the sound of high pressure gas escaping and the nitrous feed line was slapping around kicking up dirt and weeds. It was like a small tornado had landed on the test stand. After a few seconds of this, it was all over. All the gas had escaped. Upon inspection of the forward closure (same one used in the previous test) it was determined that the previous blow out damaged the threads and they did not hold. This was the last motor to be fired using this configuration anyway so it was no big loss. Next week Ed and Don plan on testing a 3inch hybrid motor.
Photo's from the 1/22/05 static test day.
Hybrid 1 - Ed's latest hybrid formula with Zinc. MPEG
Hybrid1a - Here is another shot with a different camera angle. MPEG
Hybrid 2 - Another formula that didn't burn the burst disk and didn't light. MPEG
Hybrid 2a - Another angle of this second try. MPEG
Hybrid 2b - Another attempt to relight the motor. They blew the line fitting out of the forward closure. MPEG Hybrid 2c - From a different angle. MPEG
Hybrid 3 - Here is the third motor with a new line. The threads were just too far gone and the line blew out. MPEG Hybrid 3a - from another angle. MPEG
Here is a picture of the first motor test fire graph.
Doc 1 - Graph of the first test fire of the day. PDF
WindaQ files from the statis tests. You will need the Windaq software to view these files. The software is free and can be obtained here: Windaq waveform browser software
- Windaq File 1 - The first file is from the two inch hybrid using wax, zinc and hot glue.
- Windaq File 2 - The second file is Ed's. two inch wax hybrid motor.
- Windaq File 3 - The thrid file is the wax and rubber mix hybrid.
Date: 1/29/05 at the Swank Aerospace test facility.
I was not able to attend this static test fire, but I did have pictures and video from Don and Ken to put up. After some 4 wheeling to get to the site everyone made ready to site to test Ken’s latest ANCP 5 inch “N” motor. The bunker was setup for data collection as were the cameras including the Bunkercam. Since Ken went a little conservative on the nozzles size (bigger) to keep the pressure down, they where confident that the motor would not blow. So Bunkercam was a go. Once the snow was cleared away and everything was setup and cameras were rolling, it was time for the countdown. 3…2…1 and off it went, the motor slowly came to life. First a little flame flicker and then wham full output with a flame that was about 15 feet long. The burn lasted about 12 seconds. During the burn, snow in the path of the flame melted everywhere and the motor spit out black soot everywhere. It was a great burn with everyone hooting and hollering.Photo's from the 1/29/05 static test day.
"N" motor - Video of the static test fire from outside the bunker. MPEG
Bunkercam - Video from inside the bunker. MPEG
Date 04/23/05
Ed W and Don Spillman continue their work on wax hybrids. On Saturday April 23 they tested two 3 inch motors and one 2 inch motor. The videos show great burn on both the 3 inch motors. The first video shows a 3 inch motor with only 2 lbs of N2O so the burn time is not long. The second is with 3 lbs of N2O and had a much better burn. the third video of the 2 inch motor had a great burn, but at the end had a burn through right blow the forward where the injector is. The thought is the way the injector is spraying the N2O, there is not enough insulation to protect the motor case at that super heated spot. A small graphite liner for that section will be tested or an injector redesign. I also include screen shots of the data captures.First 3 inch Motor - The first static test with 2 lbs of N2O. wmv 1.2 meg
Second 3 inch Motor - The second motor with 3 lbs of N2O. wmv 1.7 meg
The 2 inch Motor - The 2 inch motor with a great burn then a burn through. wmv 1.1 meg
Photo's from the 4/23/05 static test day.
Data captures with the top line showing the case pressure the second line showing the motor thrust in lbs and the third showing the N2O bottle pressure.
Date 06/25/05
Well several Ex'ers decided to get together and fly a couple of rockets and test a few motors before the next CEG launch. So we packed up and headed out to one of our launch sites. The day started out with some very high broken clouds, a slight breeze and nice warm (not to hot) morning due to the sun being behind the clouds. After arriving at about 8:20 am, a couple of guys were already out and had a rocket ready to fly. We got out the cameras and starting filming.
The button was pushed and away Kimble’s rocket went. There was an "N" class motor that had a beautiful boost. Just as the motor was burning out something happened to the rocket and it folded over and broke apart. We helped by picking up all the pieces we could find and got ready for the next launch. Jack’s rocket was loaded onto the rail and everyone was ready... 3...2...1... We heard the igniter pop, saw a little smoke and then a flame. The next 1/10 of a second there was a big kaboom. The rocket was blown apart in a split second. We walked around and picked up all the pieces of the rocket and motor we could find. We did find one complete grain that got ripped in half. Upon looking at the grain, we saw many voids and small air pockets. It looks like gas built up during the cure of the grain. After that, Don and Ed's hybrid rocket was prepped for flight. After fixing various issues and one miss fire, they got it off the ground. The rocket went up towards the sun at which point I lost sight of it with the camera. Congrats Don, you finally got to fly your bird and your engine. I was able to static test 3 different motors including MBR's Purple Nurple, my new purple formula. The camera of course makes it look pinker that it really was, but it is coming along nice. Due to some thrust stand difficulties, I was not able to capture all the data I was looking for. I had many more motors to test that day, but I wanted to collect the proper data, so I only fired the three. The burn time on the blue two grain 38mm motor was 1.42 seconds with a peak case pressure of 572 psi. The 38mm four grain purple motor had a burn time of 2.9 seconds and the 54mm Purple had a burn time of 4.33 seconds. Preston also test fired several small motors of which still need a little work with several cato’s. The 29mm motors seemed to have lots of thrust, but without the test stand working correctly, we were not able to get any good data.Videos from our day.
First Rocket - Great boost, then something happens. (mpeg1 2.0 meg)
Second Rocket - 3...2...1... where did it go? (mpeg1 .7meg)
Don's Rocket - Great hybrid flight. Don's first hybrid engine and it was a success. (mpeg1 2 meg)
MRB Purple Nurple - This is my new purple formula 54mm 5 grain K600ish motor with a 4.3 second burn along with a smoke/tracking grain. (mpeg1 3.4meg)