Hot Tips & Resources
Papers & Websites
Design, Build, and Test Small Liquid Rocket Engines
Copyright 1967 by Leroy J. Krzycki
Combustibles Burning in Changing Pressures - Why ejection charges don't want to function in a vacuum - A dP/dt Failure Monograph by Bill Colburn
Redstone Arsenal
Propellant Mixing and Handling Protocols
MANUFACTURE OF CASTABLE COMPOSITE PROPELLANT ROCKET MOTORS, Chapter 24 Thanks to Hans Olaf Toft!
The Carbon Resistor Igniter -pdf or read from heritage webpage
A white paper by the late Bob Dahlquist
Hybrid MicroMotors - William Colburn and Dave Oback, first use of Whip-It nitrous bulbs for rocket motors 1994. pdf file
Fiberglass Nosecone Fabrication - Mike Yammamoto, 2001 pdf file
On Making High Current Electric Match - by William Colburn, pdf
Thiokol's "Rocket Basics", an excellent primer on rocketry
University Student Project Papers
Richard Nakka's 1984 Thesis on Solid Rocket Motors
UCI_Rocket_Project_2007-2008_ESRA_Competition.pdf
Active_Stabilized_rocket_- David Wyatt.pdf (52 pages, might take a while to load)
Amateur Rocketry and Ballooning Pages:
Gene Nowaczyk's Big Adventure - BALLS 2006 Flight to 100K Feet
Hans Olaf Toft's Rocket Website in Frederiksberg, Denmark
An excellent site.
Rocket Equations - Randy Culp's terrific website
Richard Nakka's definitive site
A great list of amateur rocketry software from Rocketry.org
aRocket's Homepage - lots of amateur links
aRocket listserver archives - searchable if you subscribe
BooksOnline - Lots of historical and technical information
http://www.onlineschools.org/amateur-rocketry/ - Great resource page on amateur rocketry - thanks Eva & MCS!
Near Space Balloon Tracker - Venturing to the edge of space with balloon payloads
Balloon Boy - John Ballard's high altitude adventure, pictorial. UNR hydrogen balloon project
The Dino Mission - The Snider boys balloon project
A Kid's Space Center - Fun with Model Rockets (thanks Rachel!)
Instructions
Use of Aqua Environment Dome Load Regulator in Rocket Blow Down Propulsion Systems
by Mark Holthaus - PDF
Grove Mity-Mite Setting Instructions - Try finding this anywhere else on the Net!
Automatic Acceleration Actuated Tracking Smoke/Flare - How to use smoke candles to track your rocket
Download typical load cell mounting instructions here PDF
Load Cell Trouble Shooting - Figger out what's the matter with that pesky load cell
Load Cell Primer - Why they work and how to set them up
Pressure Transducer Primer - Why they work and how to set them up
Tank Tips - cleaning, hydrotesting, sealing and compatibility. How to get the most from your buck when buying used tanks
Making Fiberglass Tubes - by Tom Cloud, How to roll your own for fun and profit
How to Dye your parachute - Great for our 60" white parachutes!
Animated Knot Tying a terrific resource for learning knots
Various Rocket Gizmos - All kinds of interesting stuff
Ortman Key Diagram - a strong, inexpensive tubing connector method
Build yer own D-5 - if you happen to be so inclined
Parkerizing Metal Parts - by Fred Fortune
Assorted
Test Stand Pictorial - an assortment of rocket motor test stands from around the world
Nitrous Oxide Properties
Pressure, Density, and Mass Flow of N2O, 60k jpg image
Urbanski-Colburn Valve for Hybrid Motors
This is where the RATTWorks motor was born
NARCON 2013 - William Colburn's presentation on his sugar rocket experiment, early rocketry career, and Apollo years
KNO3 Sugar Motor Basics
Sugar Propellant Motor Design.pdf
PotassiumNitrate_Sorbitol_motors.pdf
Rocketry Basics
Basic_rocketry_HARA_2003-10-01.pdf
Parachute Flare - 15' Flare Parachute Story from the Vietnam War
Skylighter Pyrotechnics
Firework and Pyrotechnic Chemicals. Harry Gilliamis a terrific resource!
Calculators and Software
Ejection Charge Calculator- for MS Excel
Black Powder Ejection Charges
A table to determine the correct amount of BP for your application
Round Parachute Descent Rate Calculator
A Javascript that does the calculations for you
X-form Parachute Calculator
How to calculate how fast your rocket will descend under an X-form parachute (Excel spreadsheet)
Parachute Drag Equations
How to calculate how fast your rocket will descend under chute, Randy Culp's excellent webpage.
Tank Calculator
Calculate the volume of your cylindrical tank
Testing your Altimeter
An easy cheap way to pull a vacuum on your barometric sensor
Guipep - Graphical User Interface to PEP
Electromagnetic Flow Meter Tutorial - Compliments of David Gagliardi
Open Source Rocket Calculator
OpenRocket is a Free, fully featured model rocket simulator written in Java
RASAero - free aerodynamic analysis and flight simulation software
Historical Rocketry Resources
Hypergolic Propellants
From The Ft. Bliss Debriefing Of German Scientists "Operation Paperclip"
A compilation of secret World War Two rocket propellants
Thiokol Rocket Basics
a great .pdf about the history of rocket motors and their basic design
1949 Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program
Manual on rockets from the Civil Air Patrol and it has a great schematic diagram of the V2 Rocket, 4 meg .pdf file
Aerobee Sounding Rockets - Covers the design, operation, and performance of the Aerobee 150, 150A, 300, and 300A sounding rockets
Army Guide to Amateur Rocketry
Bob Fortune's Navaho Webpage
A look at the 1956 Navaho Cruise Missile that underwent reconstruction at Cape Canaveral. Recently updated with a terrific narrative by North American flight engineer Earl Ratliff.
Cautionary Tales
Exploding Ratt Movie
Why you don't test your hybrid in your garage
- 1.1 MB wmv file
Cletus and Delmar Score a Dewar
How LOX can kill you, your pals, and friends a mile away
- 660k PowerPoint file
Explosive Injuries
What happens when you blow yourself up
- an assortment of graphic images not for the faint of heart
All the photos on this page are shown in our Test Stand Pictorial.