Not to show my age, or how long I have been doing rocketry, but at the 21 sec
point in the video you can see a 19 or 20 year-old Chuck Rogers walking behind
the rocket wearing a yellow shirt. I was at the launch, and it sure looks like
me circa early 1980's. (I was much thinner then, and note the late 1970's hair
style.) I was there as part of the high power rocketry group that attended the
launch. (Although this was years before we started calling our activities high
power rocketry.) At this launch, or the next year's launch, we also launched
some large high power rockets. Chuck Piper has some other picture of me at
Smoke Creek launches that he's shared at BALLS launches.
Charles E. (Chuck) Rogers
-----Original Message-----
From: roxanna Mason <rocketmaster.ken@xxxxxxxxx>
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sun, Feb 28, 2021 6:05 pm
Subject: [AR] Re: [AR} Has amateur rocketry gone stealth-mode or what?
'Nozzleless', here's a 5" we built and launched at Smoke Creek circa early
80's. Lots of 3"&4" as well. Ray died before his 6" could be loaded and
launched.High L/D case bonded grain with a cylindrical port and a high shear
resistance close out propellant were the fundamentals to these high performance
rockets.
https://youtu.be/ouuvNSC6msM
Ken
On Sun, Feb 28, 2021 at 7:56 AM Rick Maschek <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
We test and or fly 'sugar' twice a month at FAR. We are two for two success
with our 12" KNSB motors and are doing a 100,000' flight with KNSB next month
using a 'small' 8" fiberglass case motor. We do nozzles, nozzleless, pvc,
fiberglass, aluminum and steel case motors. I suppose you could call that
low-tech amateur rocketry.
Rick
From: Dr Edward Jones <RocketPioneer@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2021 13:03:11 -0700
Subject: [AR] Has amateur rocketry gone stealth-mode or what?
Not many years ago this aRocket forum was effervescent with
experiments, tests, questions, answers, and wise observations my
dozens of enthusiasts, IIRC.
I've only recently resumed hands-on rocket science/engineering/tech
after a few years playing with fire and reaction motors in Mojave.
Good fortune has brought me back to Socorro, in the Land of
Enchantment, home of both the Energetic Materials Research Test Center
[read 'explosives and propellants"] and New Mexico School of Mines now
known as NM Tech, as well as the illustrious and notoriously quiet Mr
Ray aRocket Calkins himself.
Ray commutes to ABQ where he's about to graduate with a federal A&P
License. He's simultaneously engaged with R&D projects at the nearby
SpacePort America, and befriending me with assistance and personal
support in my new life here.
I was an engineering coop training student at White Sands Proving
Ground before Sputnik One and NASA, studying at then NM A&MA, now NM
State U. The Army paid my way (GS-2, Step One, $1.17/hr) letting me
work hands-on with the then-newish HAWK dual-thrust propulsion system.
Now I'm eighty-one, socially isolated, living with permssion in an
"abandoned" house Ray found for me when my place in CA burned last
year in those wildfires.
Ray and I have been playing with fire in reaction motors together
since 1989, when with the support of Dr Henry Spencer we cofounded the
Rocket Science Institute right here in Socorro, on the anniversary of
Apollo 11. Our notion at that time was to cooperatively design, test,
and fly the first amateur (non-government, private non-professionals)
rocket to the Moon. Older aRocket readers will recall our "Lunaris
Project." Thank you again, Henry!
Today I'm developing do-it-yourself ematch igniters for nozzle-less
KNSB motors, cast in paper cases, burning blends of sorbitol, xylitol,
and fructose oxidized by KN with modest additions of AN and AP, along
with the usual condiments. I'm learning again about vacuum degassing
of hot mixes. Happily these little motors can be static and flight
tested nearby.
So what's happening in the low-tech, old-school realm of amateur rocketry?
Curious, always.
Edward Jones