This blog covers the day to day progress of water rocket development by the Air Command Water Rockets team. It is also a facility for people to provide feedback and ask questions.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Polaron G2 - Phase 2 Flights

Fast forwarding a few months ....

Two weeks ago we had the opportunity to fly our full size Polaron G2 rocket with boosters at Australian Rocketry's Thunda Down Under international launch event in Westmar QLD.

We were glad to finally get this rocket in the air after several years of development. It didn't take several years to build, we just procrastinate a lot.

We flew the rocket successfully a couple of times, and are looking to now move on to Phase 3, - adding a 2nd stage to the main stage. We are likely to fly this rocket again in the current configuration though in calmer conditions as the two recent flights were affected by strong wind and didn't go as vertically as we would have liked. There may have also been a small stability issue close to booster burn out due to the large amount of water still in the bottom of the main stage that used a very small nozzle. This rocket had been designed for a long burn rather than altitude. It had a predicted burn time of around 10 seconds. We didn't quite achieve that but at ~8 seconds it was still fun to watch.

 

We've posted a video of the flights here:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnripxx0TeU


And the full G2 launch report with photos (day 157) is available here:
http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day157.htm

6 comments:

Trevor said...

George,
Really sorry I missed the flights for both your rockets, but it was good to see you in person.

This is a lovely rocket to see in video - it gives me something to aspire to.

Trevor

George Katz said...

Thanks Trevor. Thunda was definitely a fun event. I still have a few videos to go from the event but have to find the time somewhere. Best of luck for your projects too. :)

Unknown said...

Hello,
Create build. I have been following along for years now. Is there any chance you will give a tutorial on how to build this launcher you show here? Also, have you considered selling the custom rings and nozzles you make? I am sure they will sell well. Anyways, thanks for the videos and everything else you do on your website. it really helps new people get into the hobby.

George Katz said...

Hello Magdiel,
Unfortunalety we are not planning on making a tutorial for this launcher. Though we're happy to answer any questions you may have about it if you choose to build a similar one.
We had considered selling some custom components such as nozzles, but have decided against it. We just have too many projects going at the moment, and so there is no spare time in making components to sell.

Unknown said...

George what if it was an order that might make it worth your while like 10 flight computers and 2 of the latest cluster launcher you built. Will that work for an order?

George Katz said...

Sorry Magdiel, as mentioned previously we are tied up with too many projects currently. Thanks for the offer though. :)