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Tower-Rocket
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A few questions came up on the Rocketry On Line forums about my 2 stage "tower rocket". This is a model rocket that has a launch tower as the first stage. This first stage carries a mercury switch, a couple of AAA batteries, two safety switches (one manual that is thrown just before leaving it on the pad and one automatic that is triggered as the model leaves the pad at launch), a pair of igniter clips (connector pins that slip over the igniter leads) and an upper stage rocket (any 18mm 3 finned rocket).
The rocket launches on a C6-3 motor. Moments after launch, a safety pin gets pulled from the model, arming the onboard launch circuitry. At motor burn-out, the model experiences negative G forces, forcing the mercury in the mercury switch to fly to the top of the switch, closing the launch contact. This launches the rocket that is held in the tower part of the model (the second stage). This second stage clears the launch tower and 3 seconds later the lower stage ejection charge deploys the chute for the 1st stage recovery. The second stage functions as any normal single stage rocket using whatever recovery device it has.
Below are a few pictures of this model as well as a video (2.2MB)
| Thumbnail / Link | Description |
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Overall view of the Tower Rocket. As you can see, she's in rough shape... After over 15 years and dozens of launches, she has a number of battle scars, not to mention a missing nose cone... |
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A close up of the safety-arm switch. It's a small copper spring clip pressing against another contact. I place a wedge of cardboard under the clip (breaking contact) and tether this to the base of the launch pad. Upon launch, the rocket goes up, but the cardboard stays behind allowing the clip to make contact, arming the rocket as it clears the pad. |
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A close up of the base of the second stage. The nose cone in the main (central) lower stage body acts as the launch blast deflector for the second stage so it has suffered a great deal of damage (but is still in great flying condition) |
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A top down view |
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A close up of the top of the tower with the 2nd stage about to exit. |
| Here is a link to a 2MB WMV file of me describing this model (just HAD to try out my new Digital Movie Creator toy...) |
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