Epic Water-Rockets Take Flight

Jesse Dupreez

Active member
Hello everyone!
I decided to make this thread for my YouTube channel (which is almost all water rocket stuff)
So that you guys can post suggestions for new videos, And I can post pics and vids that i upload

My equipment:

24 L electric air compressor (9 bar max),
Little key chain sky cam,
And launch base with nozzle which screws on bottle
Screenshot from VID_0138.3gp.png
3level waterrocket.png
 

MaxTheFliteFreak

Active member
I also had a period during my childhood when I was obsessed with water rockets, but I didn't know much about them at the time and my building skills weren't nearly as good as they are now, and so i didn't have a release mechanism or any good way of launching it. What I had was a cork, zipties, tape and a bycycle valve and hand pump. Since I didn't have a release mechanism, I had to hold the rocket down with my hand and pump with the other, or just wait for the rocket to gain enough pressure to lift off. I also had no way of knowing how much air was in the rocket so it was always a waiting game. I had a lot of fun though and learnt some neat little things along the way.
Happy flying!
 

MaxTheFliteFreak

Active member
Need to add electronics to home-in on a FT airplane. Even without... it would be the biggest hit at Flite Fest! :ROFLMAO:
I think every flying field needs one for dealing with eratic 3D pilots. If you were flying at an airfield with nitro planes, you could make it a heat seaking water rocket.
 

Inq

Elite member
They'd have about as much chance of hitting a plane as two planes hitting each other has... but I think it'd be a fun addition.

I volunteered for an 8th grade Science class as an assistant for the teacher... mainly to keep the urchins safe. I brought this...
Curiosity.jpg
 

mastermalpass

Master member
They'd have about as much chance of hitting a plane as two planes hitting each other has... but I think it'd be a fun addition.

I volunteered for an 8th grade Science class as an assistant for the teacher... mainly to keep the urchins safe. I brought this...
View attachment 234022

I like the model. What are those electronics, did you have it gyro stabilised via the fins?
 

Inq

Elite member
I like the model. What are those electronics, did you have it gyro stabilised via the fins?

Oh gosh no. The first year... the rocket flew with no electronics. Then Covid happened just before that segment of the class was scheduled and it never flew with the electronics.

The board on the left is a Raspberry Pi Zero-W. A WiFi based Linux computer. The ribbon cable and tiny board is a video camera. The board on the right was voltage regulator/charging board for the LiPo battery. The goal planned was to have a real-time video feed along with a real-time BMP280 pressure sensor for measuring altitude, and accelerometer to measure boost phase accelerations and duration. All to be sent down to a laptop via the WiFi. It would also be retained on the SD card hard disk.

The eventual plan was to design various nozzles that would restrict the flow... thus comparing low thrust over longer duration versus the higher thrust / short duration of the standard 2-liter bottle outlet. In phase 1 - Nozzles like...
Nozzle 1 - 5.png


In phase 2, we also wanted to study the Aerospike designs using...
Compare.png


And for a final phase, we wanted to attempt a two stage nozzle. The part on the right is placed inside the 2-liter bottle and its density calibrated to float in the water nose down as shown. The nozzle on the left is screwed onto the 2-liter bottle and water filled and pressurized as normal. The theory being at launch it would need the large bore and high thrust to get it going and as it burns off water, the float nozzle would descend down until the water flow sucks it down into the large throat and the last portion of the fuel (water/pressure) has a smaller thrust, but also has far less weight to accelerate.

It was hoped we'd be able to see these thrust curves and sudden change in thrust curves to determine what portion of water was forced out in stage 1 versus stage 2... thus being able optimize future nozzles to maximize altitude determined by the pressure gauge.

Nozzle 13 - 15mm.png
 

mastermalpass

Master member
Oh gosh no. The first year... the rocket flew with no electronics. Then Covid happened just before that segment of the class was scheduled and it never flew with the electronics.

The board on the left is a Raspberry Pi Zero-W. A WiFi based Linux computer. The ribbon cable and tiny board is a video camera. The board on the right was voltage regulator/charging board for the LiPo battery. The goal planned was to have a real-time video feed along with a real-time BMP280 pressure sensor for measuring altitude, and accelerometer to measure boost phase accelerations and duration. All to be sent down to a laptop via the WiFi. It would also be retained on the SD card hard disk.

The eventual plan was to design various nozzles that would restrict the flow... thus comparing low thrust over longer duration versus the higher thrust / short duration of the standard 2-liter bottle outlet. In phase 1 - Nozzles like...
View attachment 234034

In phase 2, we also wanted to study the Aerospike designs using...
View attachment 234035

And for a final phase, we wanted to attempt a two stage nozzle. The part on the right is placed inside the 2-liter bottle and its density calibrated to float in the water nose down as shown. The nozzle on the left is screwed onto the 2-liter bottle and water filled and pressurized as normal. The theory being at launch it would need the large bore and high thrust to get it going and as it burns off water, the float nozzle would descend down until the water flow sucks it down into the large throat and the last portion of the fuel (water/pressure) has a smaller thrust, but also has far less weight to accelerate.

It was hoped we'd be able to see these thrust curves and sudden change in thrust curves to determine what portion of water was forced out in stage 1 versus stage 2... thus being able optimize future nozzles to maximize altitude determined by the pressure gauge.

View attachment 234037

Oh nice! Pretty genius to have a float nozzle that relies on physics to automatically adjust the thrust to weight and eek out the 'fuel' for maximum efficiency. I hope you resume this project at some point, will be awesome to see how high a water rocket can get... I wonder if it's possible to set up multiple stages on a bottle rocket.
 

Inq

Elite member
Oh nice! Pretty genius to have a float nozzle that relies on physics to automatically adjust the thrust to weight and eek out the 'fuel' for maximum efficiency. I hope you resume this project at some point, will be awesome to see how high a water rocket can get... I wonder if it's possible to set up multiple stages on a bottle rocket.

Yes, some people have pushed way beyond the basics as in an organization with http://wra2.org/WRA2_Standings.php. If you do a YouTube search, you'll find all kinds of exotic ones with ten plus 2-liter bottles, multiple stages, side boosters, triggering mechanisms, specially built pressure vessels.

We chose not to do those because, you get into major safety issues when modifying the actual 2-liter bottles. We just wanted to try to illustrate a more of a scientific testing scenario and how minor things might make major differences and set up a method that shows telemetry in an instant-gratification form.

Its sad to say that out of multiple 8th grades classes in a public school system, the Science teacher might have one or two students that actually are interested in something more than getting to go outside for recess.
 

Inq

Elite member
Does it have a recovery system? (parachute, etc.)

Yes, that was part of the 8th grade class lectures - parachutes. They used cut-up garbage bags, but with no active electronics/mechanism. In general the top toppled off at apogee. Some even during the launch. The kids were using cones made from poster board, others cut up 2-liter bottles and some even used traffic cones. Most parachutes actually deployed. The one I was planning to have the electronics was going to have a servo to kick it off. I didn't want to auger-in with all that gear on board. :rolleyes:
 

Inq

Elite member
That is a nice launch base!

The launch pad worked well. It was one of early uses of a 3D printer and it was WAY overbuilt on thickness (3 mm). I didn't have a good feel back then. You could probably beat on it with a sledge hammer. Large spikes driven into the ground would hold it down. The rocket hold down arms (purple) pivot on the steel shafts seen in the picture above and are geared to each other so pulling on one with a string causes the other to also move outward releasing the green two-liter rocket. Standard PVC piping handled all the pressure duties. The 3D printed plastic just held things in place.
LaunchPad.png


I would also like o try aerospike nozzles

Although I printed a few nozzles (not the aerospike) I never got around to figuring out how to hold down and seal the rocket with a nozzle to the launch pad. It was a TBD! :ROFLMAO: Fortunately, COVID saved me.