Water Rocket with Boosters - Axion G2

In preparation for flying the Polaron G2 rocket we flew the smaller Axion G2 a couple of times at NSWRA's new HPR launch site.
For more information please visit:
www.AirCommandRockets.com/day1...

[@taofledermaus]

For the second launch to be a "failure" it turned out pretty well! That was really fun to watch.

[@CustomcrowdMitroc]

+TAOFLEDERMAUS nice meme

[@victorgalvez927]

Im a big fan of your channel...!!!!

[@tootk90]

I really love your channel. Now I'm wondering if you can manage to test this big "slug" lol

[@jhayrgarcia8253]

@@tootk90 im thinking the same thing!..😂

[@pratwurschtgulasch6662]

i'm a fan too. i always love the mercury and pachinko balls in syrup, so soothing i can fall asleep to that over and over :D

[@VulpisFoxfire]

Nice performance...it's amazing how close water rockets get to the range of usual solid-fuel models.

[@rickgauger2895]

Years ago, when these plastic bottles first appeared, I wondered if you could make a water rocket with them. You fellows have answered that question for all time. Great video.

[@shonaoneill5151]

Well done George, incredible.

[@dcairns61]

Amazing, I had not idea water rockets could be developed to that degree! Great work!

[@jeffkrutsinger2903]

Thank you for taking the time to document and share your hobby with the ret of the world.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers Jeff :)

[@laimo87]

Soooooo Amazing! Nice job!!!

[@MilanKarakas]

I don't know what is more exciting to watch - the altitude reached, or the beauty of parachute opening. Keep good job!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers +Wild Maniac :)

[@calvinthedestroyer]

I can watch these launches all day :)

[@ti994apc]

Well thought out. Good job.

[@OP_opal]

It shined short but very *beautiful...*

[@Matlockization]

I have never seen such expert organisation in all levels of your rocket project. Very impressed.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers :)

[@eromadroleromadrol5171]

Congrats ! Keep on rockettin' !

[@youtubespeedruns4784]

Great analysis!

[@2150dalek]

Very impressive engineering. Great launch.

[@Starcruiser81]

Beautiful.... concept, design, function, very well done, wish I could play with such things >)

[@Sparky-Tim]

You guys are amazing!

[@bubblezovlove7213]

I used to make the easy version of this as a kid. I can hardly believe you actually have discarding fuel tanks?! That's brilliant!!

[@rstaff3]

Very impressive, as always!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thank you Dick:) Had lots of fun flying this one, even if the 2nd flight was sub-optimal.

[@11moonshot]

What a beautiful hobby!!

[@jester17282]

Very well guys, All successful launches in my eyes.

[@Reckone12]

This is so cool! Well done!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers :)

[@supriyonovpfisinfo8538]

Truly extraordinary

[@AdilsonPinheiro7339]

Amazing. Very good indeed.

[@Hongqie]

i really appreciates the great efforts you guys put into this short excitement though personally i will not feel any fun at all by doing this kind of stuff.

[@nicparker3809]

That was really amazing, Super fast and well built. Water is so cool. I been floating steam around not sure how safe it would be. H2o is so magical..

[@AirCommandRockets]

Steam is definitely a little more tricky and also a little bit more dangerous, though it can have better performance. Hot steam around kids is only slightly more dangerous then a fully pressurised rocket. :)

[@AwesomeWoodThings]

That's amazeballs! Wow!

[@Y13A]

Ingenious mechanism and design.. :)

[@ftswarbill]

Failure or not it was a good watch. Cheers.

[@jsbrocketry1728]

Hello Air Command, nicely composed video as always. I like the fact that you talk us through the mechanisms and how the rocket works. Its simple, clever devices that really do the trick. The launch was AWESOME! If this is just the small one I can't wait to see how high the Polaron goes! Interesting though, how high the Axion G5 went with a 9mm nozzle at a high pressure.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thanks Jamie. We too are keen to see how the Polaron G2 will fly, although it is not being built for altitude. It is being built for a long duration burn. The boosters are needed to get it up to speed as the small nozzle would not get it off the ground with sufficient speed. We're happy with how the Axion G5 performed, and it should be possible to push that performance a little further when launched at 250psi. We'll have to wait until next time to try again.

[@Shastavalleyoutdoorsman]

That is just awesome.

[@spieltmit]

You have to make them land again (without parachute) ^^- just jokin - well done!

[@latifajagdal6127]

لرابوا

[@yves-noel-mariegonnet1043]

Clean énergie! Bravo!

[@mandolinic]

This is impressive stuff.

[@Macy_Freya]

I like the different colored booster propellants :)

[@Warriorking.1963]

I'm not a rocket scientist, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I never knew you could build multi-stage water rockets, and even though you claim both launches were not without their problems, to me that was SERIOUSLY impressive!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers :)

[@ThirdDegreeWitchExplores]

Blimey , impressive !!!!!!!

[@harshtsingh6963]

I am big fan of your channel sir. ( Love from *INDIA* ) and I want to become a scientist , my age - 14.. Thanks..

[@fast_and_curious9144]

Seeing U have Acces To KZbin at 14 U could gain More Of It, Till you Get To study Ur Bachelor's

[@fjon4060]

All this from water. Way too cool!

[@1988revenge]

nice work !!

[@McRocket]

Pretty cool stuff.

[@wasderrocketswasserraketen8025]

Nice first launch! And the second one wasn't too bad... :D! Greetings from Germany!

[@carlosanzaldog2990]

beautiful!!!

[@kevinswithenbank2614]

Outdoors in good weather with the kids and no iPod. mobile phone. internet. and science. This is the best thing on the planet. Or off the planet. Top man.. Great to see someone doing something. Kill TV .

[@LoveNature153]

Good job

[@jackas5658]

This is Amazing

[@charcoal386]

What a great hobby

[@AirCommandRockets]

@badley wrong : Thanks, yeah it was sad to see Antares disassemble like that today.

[@nathantrigg5399]

l got a long way to go yet, still on single stages. Keep up the good work, you have to commercialize all your good work.

[@franciscoosuna259]

nice roll of the main stage after boost stages drop

[@s9523pink]

Brilliant!

[@gregoryfaith4303]

Excellent!

[@vuthap99]

Water Rocket That have strong power.

[@janbobis]

didn't know that there really are water rocket scientists! Anyhow, neat job you got back there! Wish i could also create mine and would be very happy if it reach 100ft.

[@Basrockets]

Very nice video and some good test to see where you can improve, i can not wait when you launch the complete G2! But the booster have a own locking system on the launcher why would you made those steel rings if there is no fore on that section? Because the booster are held in place by the launcher it self.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thank you Basrockets. :) That's a good question why we need the strong connection on the boosters when they are held by the launcher. The individual booster retaining mechanisms are there for safety. They reduce the stress on the central nozzle while filling the rocket. If the central nozzle failed while the rocket is only partially filled that may be worse than if it failed at full pressure. However, with the boosters being released slightly before the main stage, the full static force is then transferred through the retaining mechanism for a few milliseconds before the main stage is released. When it leaves the pad the peak thrust is actually higher than the static force (I think in the order of 550N peak per booster), although at that time the main stage is also producing thrust (~180N peak) which partially cancels this force on the retaining mechanism. We also wanted to incorporate a safety margin in the strength of the connections. We tried thin aluminium sheet for the pins and loops, but they were too susceptible to bending.

[@Raberuji]

"one day you'll hit the dome" said a flat-eather somewhere when he watched this... even if he was finding this way to cool to say it. Nice video, bring back childhood memories with a booster pack xD

[@MrKboom-gi8kl]

cool rocket

[@habibhaidari5503]

Good work

[@pschroeter1]

Rocketry, where failures are just as fun to watch as successes.

[@ankurage]

pschroeter1 And neither are cheap as well.

[@lolwtnick4362]

right? like when the challenger exploded

[@24Medddia]

Unless your nasa

[@roihulamin2717]

very amazing your rocket

[@djpitr]

Very cool

[@TobahLeproso]

Insane

[@MrAlexdablock]

I dont know how you mad the stages sepreate but very cool, adn seams to work very well.!!

[@AirCommandRockets]

www.aircommandrockets.com/howitworks_1.htm#DropAwayBoosters

[@t.laikunga3736]

very good

[@toddhampson7234]

nice work George :)

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thanks Todd. Good to hear from you. :)

[@craigcowley7560]

Great stuffI guess we are looking at a green rocket. LOLKeep up the good work

[@rheagarcia6241]

amazing

[@maruivanrico2996]

Follow up question: How fast do you think the main stage is traveling after reaching 500 feet? (speed of rocket @500-520ft)

[@pratwurschtgulasch6662]

i would say you are on par with blue orgin

[@Norman92151]

I wonder how much useful thrust those boosters add. Granted they look cool parachuting back but perhaps lengthening the central core would give better efficiency due to the light weight of the "fuel tank"/rocket skin and the associated reduction in complexity would eliminate leakage and potential failure points.

[@AirCommandRockets]

They add about 30% to the overall altitude when compared to the sustainer alone.

[@bertkraan2817]

great, sustainable rocketry! no polution, less noise, fast reusable boosters, no dangerous chemicals/heat/burning stuff. Cool!

[@crashk1955]

Awesome.

[@RosssRoyce]

You guys should make gliders innitially propelled to altitude by water :D Great videos!

[@_xzvf2557]

Really nice rocket. Good job! In the future please build a rocket with large boosters, that have fuel-crossfeed, so when thoose burn out, the sustainer stage is still full. I know that, that's hard, but please try it at least. Or a three stage rocket.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thanks Peter. This rocket we are building (Polaron G2) is specifically designed for a long burn rather than to go as high as possible. Because we are using a small nozzle, the rocket doesn't have enough thrust to get off the pad fast enough, and hence the need for boosters to get it up to speed. Static tests of the Polaron G2 rocket have given us burn times of over 10 seconds. "In the future please build a rocket with large boosters, that have fuel-crossfeed, so when thoose burn out, the sustainer stage is still full." Something like this? :) : 2-Stage Water Rocket to 864 feet - A project from several years ago.

[@_xzvf2557]

No, I mean that there is a pipe or something that drains the fuel from the booster and use it in the sustainer, so that the sustainer is still fully fueled when the boosters detatch.Such systems are used in real(space) rockets,that have liquid fuelled boosters(hydogen,oxigen). And please build another high preassure rocket.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Peter Simon Bohner Interesting, I wasn't aware there was such a configuration. Do you have a link, or an example of the rocket that uses this system?

[@_xzvf2557]

The soyuz rocket (1st stage) used that or the space shuttle(the main shuttle drains first the fuel from the big orange tank) or the delta IV rocket

[@AirCommandRockets]

Peter Simon Bohner But the shuttle external tank is not a booster, it is essentially just like a drop tank on military aircraft. With the Soyuz, I wasn't aware that there was any transfer fuel/oxidizer between the liquid boosters and the main stage. With the Delta IV I assume you are referring to the Delta IV Heavy as that has liquid fuel boosters? I also wasn't aware that there was any transfer of fuel/oxidizer between the cores. Am I understanding correctly the configuration you mean?

[@RaketfuedrocketsDeutschland]

Wow, that's a really well made video. Especially the combination of background music and the video files is great! It seems like the Axion G2 performs very well, I'm sure you can fix the problems at the second flight. :) I really like the parachute mechanism for the boosters, it looks very easy and reliable. We will use a similar mechanism at our Swallow 2 rocket, thank you for the great idea. Can't wait to see the flight of the Polaron G2. :) Cheers Julian from Raketfued PS: If you are interested, I would make a nice little video/trailer for you and your rockets. I'm so thrilled of your rockets and your videos, it would be a pleasure to do something like that. Just say if you're interested, and choose a nice piece of (free to use) music.

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thank you Julian. We were happy with how the Axion rocket performed in these tests. The couple of small issues are easy to fix, with just a new washer and slight adjustment to the timing. We are taking small steps with the launcher and rocket as we want to see how each of the systems behaves before flying the big rocket. The rocket and launcher are designed for 250psi, but the big rocket will first be launched at 200psi, and then if the flight is successful we'll try again at 220psi and then at 250psi. At the higher pressures there is a much greater risk of something breaking so we want to at least get a couple of flights in first. Re videos, I'll send you a PM. :)

[@RaketfuedrocketsDeutschland]

AirCommandRockets Alright, thank you for the information. Have you ever considered about painting your rockets? It would look absolutely awesome. Cheers

[@AirCommandRockets]

RaketfuedRockets We haven't had a lot of luck with painting PET bottles because the paint seems to flake off after several pressure cycles. We've tried vinyl paint which is stretchy, but expensive. The other reason is that we use a lot of tape on the outside of the rockets to hold things on, and when we remove it the paint can peel. When building rockets like the Shadow with a nice finish, then yes we paint them. :)

[@spnwaterrockets8473]

AirCommandRockets George about the paint i had the same problem…. what i found out is that high gloss paint does the job after some 20 launches it stills hold pressure perfectly

[@AirCommandRockets]

SPN WaterRockets Good to know, thanks for the information, we may have to give that a try. Do you know how well it holds out against applying and removing sticky tape/electrical tape?

[@igorbou3232]

Cool

[@HadidHasanHemel]

The background music is so good..can anyone mention the original soundtrack?

[@jamieclay007]

Beautiful work - do you find the boosters offer any lifting advantage? How high will it go without the boosters?

[@AirCommandRockets]

+Jamie Clay Yes they do. They add around 40% more altitude to the main stage.

[@endretolnai]

you can go out to space with this congrat and thanks for the vid

[@wingmanalive]

You drove 6 hours to shoot off water rockets? That's commitment!

[@gamberrosepicos4173]

Amazing ;)

[@pnachtwey]

There is a lot of rocket science even with the pressurized water rockets. I do a lot of simulations involving differential equations. I wonder what these guys did.

[@AirCommandRockets]

We use simulators that use differential equations.

[@sturmwind89]

nice rocket)

[@spnwaterrockets8473]

Hi George congrats to all the team for these great launches….I was wondering why do you put the fligthcamera facing downwards?Is it because it gives a better notion of distance and speed of the flight? Becouse personally i find that facing the camera sideways is faaaar more beautifull at least the view is. Also i wanted to thank you guys for the amazing tutorials, since I'm finishing my 2 stage rocket =D and I'm getting MUCH MORE professional and perfectionist thanks to you guys and raketfued….Keep up the amazing work and btw as I've written high gloss paint paints the rocket perfectly and id doesn't flake off, although it takes 3-5 days to dry depending on your climate. AMAZING VID Congrats from India!!! ;D Shiva

[@AirCommandRockets]

Thank you Shiva. :) Great question about why we point the camera downwards. There are a few reasons. We find there are more interesting things to look at on the ground than up in the air. Also if the rocket is spinning on the way up looking sideways gives you a more smeared video. The other reason is that we attach the parachute cord so the rocket falls sideways so on the way down the camera can film the horizon or essentially the "sideways" shot. I think the ideal view would be mostly down with perhaps the horizon at the top of the frame, a lot easier to do with wide angle lenses. But having said that, I'm all for multiple camera angles. Also thanks for the paint tip. I have replied to your other post.

[@kgill99]

great stuff guys! one funny bit tho-'launch site'=a random field!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Cheers. :) Actually it is a proper launch site. It took the club close to a year to get the paperwork done to be able to launch at this site. You need to get permission from the council, land owner, fire brigade, CASA (air services), and the insurance company.

[@dianayareli7402]

¿A cuanto uno?

[@Axgoodofdunemaul]

Thanks for doing this. I've wondered for years if plastic soda bottles could be inflated to high pressures to make powerful water rockets. I'm sure you know this already, but a typical soda bottle inflated to 100psi will explode like a bomb if it gets the slightest puncture, so be careful. My own research isn't as constructive as yours -- I was trying to make a fireless super-firecracker!

[@cujoemblakka1041]

make more sturdy boosters from pbc/ cement. hope everything goes well.

[@datrusob]

North Korea's Competition

[@endretolnai]

do you know how this works? if north korea develop a rocket like this he,she can nuke amerika straight away....this project has huge development potential

[@generalleenknassknotretire9180]

Endre Tolnai I like to think of North Korea as a woman. One that likes to be on top.

[@meezalamazala279]

@@endretolnai Looks like someone nuked your spelling...

[@lllllllllllllllII]

Endre Tolnai your stupid learn to speak

[@NeonGen2000]

@uncle bobs dead Launching a rocket that flies over Japan causing an international crisis seems pretty good to me...

[@lebommjohnson8101]

That pounding, penetrating bass background is just too much ! ! Ditch it !

[@QuarktaschemitSenf]

Very impressive Job! Could you please explain me some things i haven't understood yet? The boosters will seperate from the main rocket because they dont applie force upwards anymore and the way they are attached to the main stage. (will slide downwards) What i really dont get yet ist this: How were you able to launch the mainstage controlled after the boosters? Is this also solved mechanically somehow?

[@AirCommandRockets]

Here is how the boosters work: www.aircommandrockets.com/howitworks_1.htm#DropAwayBoosters the launcher is electronic and the timing is adjusted so that the main stage releases slightly after the boosters. Here is a video where we adjust the timing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3bLoYiNrqyNotE

[@TanzanianRoots]

Physics quiz: If you added salt to the water to increase weight, would the rocket go higher?

[@AirCommandRockets]

Probably not: Here is an explanation and experiment that shows why: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKaWo3yfhd6SZ5o

[@shubhamsaxena508]

or use mercury instead of water

[@brandonfleming7118]

The mercury would probably weight it down more due to the much more weight, I think water is the best choice in my opinion

[@davec.6456]

Someone do the math, please. How many of these boosters would it take to launch the space shuttle?

[@maruivanrico2996]

Just what was that whistling after the mainstage burnout?

[@mmodnao]

Fire and fury.

[@user-uo6yq4eb9s]

와아익 페이커!

[@chaihongjie3466]

A good rocket i want it

[@DexRox748]

Falcon heavy bro

[@Vee1176]

great

[@davidxiao9175]

For the Axion G2?

[@kolotordoc]

Water rockets, level GOD

[@elliotwooley2630]

Liquid rockets....... Oh, water is liquid.