I developed an interest in making rockets in 2022. While sugar rockets can be easily made, they can be extremely dangerous if handled incorrectly. That’s part of the reason why I made water rockets. They provided an easy gateway to the concepts of rocketry such as aerodynamics, stability, and recovery – all without the dangers of cooking up your own rocket fuel.
Using half inch PVC pipe, zip ties and a bike pump, I created what’s called a “Clark Cable Tie Launcher”, which utilizies the zip ties to hold the rocket down while air is pumped in to pressurize it, and a clamp which goes over the zip ties can be pulled down to release the rocket.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find any O-rings to create a good pressure seal in the pipe. I ended up making a bulge in the tube itself by heating it over a flame and squeezing the pipe together. It worked, but just barely. Leaks were quite frequent and I had to regularly overfill the bottle with water as a lot of it would leak out before launch.
My rockets were extremely simple in the beginning. They had cardboard fins which had been soaked in super glue to waterproof them, and a simple nosecone made from the top of an extra bottle.
Later on, I made my own flight computer using an Arduino and a barometric sensor which allowed for automatic parachute deployment and max altitude measurement.
Unfortunately, on 22nd November 2022, the parachute of my rocket deployed early during a launch of my rocket with the flight computer installed. The sudden opening of the chute during high speed snapped the cord attaching it to the rocket, and the entire thing came crashing back to the ground, ultimately destroying the flight computer I had spent a long time working on.
This pretty much destroyed my motivation to continue working on the rocket. While I have experimented with different 3D printed launch mechanisms and ways to make larger water rockets, I have not made a full launchable one since 2022. I plan to change this soon!