David Windestal did the rocket knife some years back. It was (quite literally) a knife attached vertically to a rocket powered sled on a rail, with something at the other end to take the impact.
When I was a kid (about 65 years go) I bought a Jetex-powered helicopter. Jetex was a small solid fuel rocket motor, about 1 inch long. The helicopter had two rocket engines at the ends of the rotor, like your first design. I too encountered the problem of sometimes only one engine firing, which shook the copter violently. When it worked properly it flew quite well.
So I have some potential for improvement here.... possibly. It sounds like, purely from the sound, the helicopters are rather quickly reaching their maximum rotational speed and then staying there for a while. From my knowledge of rockets, the thrust they produce is basically a function of the exhaust gas speed vs the forward speed of the rocket, especially when you're in an atmosphere. So my thought here is that possibly the rockets, with the arm length and rotational speed, are reaching a linear speed that's basically equivalent to their max thrust minus however much for drag forces. So hypothetically you could get it to rotate even faster by putting the rocket closer to the center of mass of the unicopter. You could probably pull that off by having the arm extend past the rocket's position and act as a counterweight to the main wing, and possibly even improve the lift by making that counterweight a much smaller wing. The other alternative is that the linear speed issue is negligible compared to the sheer drag of the whole system, at which point I wonder if you could get better performance with a larger, slower, more efficient wing design. Or even a 2-stage system. 2-stage rocket unicopter would be amazing.
Suggestion: A rocket powered car. But not in the way you'd expect. A gear gets spun by rockets (like the mono-copter) and that connects to the actual wheels moving the car forward. It's an idea of the wacky type
50 years ago Standard Fireworks used to make those out of a small strip of cardboard and a small rocket motor. Designed to be used in the standard (no pun intended) terraced house back garden. They amused a generation of fathers and terrified a generation of small children as the watching family would have no idea which way the highly dangerous toy would fly off. It would elevate to cry’s of ooh’s and aah’s and the occasional “look out” as it would hit buildings on its way up. If only we had RU-vid when we were young….. and CAD printers may have been handy too!
Yeahh!! That's my video 0:30 Very interesting project! I see the resemble of maple seeds falling. I love to watch them float, parachute, tumble, spin and glide to the ground as you explore the aerodynamics of seeds. Awesome project!
Thanks so much again for allowing me to use it, Arleth! Shame I couldn't find any seeds like this in my garden, but you saved the day! Glad you enjoyed my video. :)
Did this when I was a kid in the 1970s. No 3D printer, all built by hand. I got the helicopter ideas from spinning fire works. Made all kinds of things using wood and sheet metal and rocket motors. History repeats itself.
6:00 POV you’re an archeologist 1,000 years in the future. Your plastic detector picks up something, so you dig down and find this thing buried in the middle of an old forest. Wth do you do lol
If you can lock it in place temporarily(fraction of a second) until you can light both motors, seems like a symmetrical 2 motor rotorcraft design could fly in a more balanced way, and go a long distance
When I was a kid my father gave us puddle jumpers. They were a airplane propeller glued to a stick in the middle of the hole. One swipe of your hands to spin it and up it went!!! Tons of fun for hours. Maybe you could somehow incorporate a stick of some sorts for stability. ❤️the channel
Barely pitch the engine-mount angle, as opposed to now relying entirely on the engine solely to rotate and the blade's ability to lift: separately, the prop-blade, perhaps a single triangular wide-tip fan-vane would better balance the thrust into lift.
Brilliant video .... thank you for making me smile and inspiring me to fun stuff with rockets... My wife just shakes her head and calls me names .... So I put that down to success...
As the propellant burns the center of gravity/rotation will change substantially. I wonder how much the RPM changes. Perhaps making it stretch out as the RPM increases can compensate for this?
The seed works so well because of the heavy weight ball that becomes the centre of rotation it helps stop the side to side pull of the mono blade so if you can replicate that a bit better on yours it might go straight up just an idea
I would like to see a retro rocket parachute. This was attempted during WW2 with little success, but more recently it was used on the Mars mission very successfully. This will be a challenge!
@@voornaam3191 this device provides a braking effect on a free-falling object using rockets to provide thrust. Imagine you dropped a pallet of goods from a transport plane at low(ish) altitude (stabilised by a small drogue chute) as it approaches the ground at high speed, altitude sensors detect this and trigger rockets which quickly slow the vertical motion allowing a soft landing. Experiments were done during WW2 by the British, but the available sensors in 1943 made it unreliable and the project was abandoned. With modern sensors and computer control, it should be a possible, but challenging project.
You can't launch those with low thrust long burn motors like this. Those are for shorter burn higher thrust rocket motors. Otherwise it is more efficient to use the wings for lift in the climb. Plus, these have no secondary function like delay or ejection charges to activate things.
Possible idea: Use the expanding gasses of the rocket engine to drive a steam engine. The idea is quite interesting and the modern vs old fashioned tech contrast is also nice.
How bout a massive rocket powered water wheel? Have the thrust hit the wheel buckets instead of water. I could see that spinning fast enough to open a portal to the upside down.
3D printers really are amazing. I have literally thousands of hours on my original ender three and I have yet to have a single mechanical failure that wasn't my fault.
The first thing I was thinking was actually "Yes you can, they make cheap fireworks that are literally cardboard, rocket-powered helicopters" but still, cool footage and cool project!
the single blade design is cool because when the motor burns and it autorotates back it resembles those seeds of a maple tree that are very similar and autorotate down like that.
Long burn, multi stage rocket planes would be cool! Like, one high powered slow burn to take you up, then some longer burning, lower powered ones to keep you aloft when you need more speed/altitude! Keep up the good work dude!
We had these as a kid in boxes of fireworks . All they were was a bit of cardboard with rocket motor stuck to one end , to launch them you would put them on a sloping bit of wood or as shed roof , light and hope for the best.
Lockheed Martin did this about 15 years ago, there's was about the size of what you did. It was classified for a long time and then the project was scuttled. The engine was "grown' on a copper chip and I was a VERY small turbine engine. It had a camera on it that was able to compile a 3D scan of a battlefield, or even a building. They also figured out how to equip it with a small explosive charge that would have been lethal. It was able to be steered using control surfaces and the engine was able to vary it's output rapidly to change course, hover and fly. Really cool tech, I know the guy that designed it and I did some of the machining on it myself.
For electronic ignition wire from a vape does the trick perfectly. 2s/3s battery will light off but you would want more of a timer as 2 seconds lights it but 6 seconds burns it. For rotational mass issue you should look further at the angle of attack
I love how in the beginning his reasoning is “ I know it’s dangerous and potentially lethal, but hey.. views!” Fair enough my friend, you earned a new sub 👍
the dual motor version might have worked if you locked the prop until both motors fired up and then released the lock. a simple dowel or steel pin might do.
You can actually make these by taping a cardstock wing to a ground flower (the spinning firework) In places where aerial fireworks are legal they sell them premade
To fine point of rotation take inspiration from maple seedling pods. Mother nature already made a monocopter. Also the 'stick' or launch rod. Make it longer so copter can build up speed before takeoff.
Love the consept!! A segestion for a chalange is to make a fighte jet with working missils. just like whene you launched the space shuttle off the plane except a missile and on the wing
I fly these every July. Near the beginning. They cost 2-3 bucks. I’ve also been working on developing a stick, that is rocket powered. I gave it a red paint job and can fire it from a bottle.
If you revisit this, the optimum is with the rocket thrust vector angled somewhat downwards. Similar to how jets in cruise are a bit nose up, the best use of thrust and lift is mostly lift but with some thrust.
Tip a rocket with a few rocket spinners as payload. Have the rocket parachute deploy and light one or two these so that it gets a bit of auto rotation before zipping off. Attach a few LEDs to them and launch at night.
Rocket powered impact sled testing 3d printed structural bridge and lattice diagnostic. Like car crash testing for 3d printed support style stuff. Maybe even with a press and force meter?
Just discovered your channel tonight. I must say there are some very imaginative projects on here. Too bad that you're on the other side of the pond because I would love to watch in person some day. Best of luck, keep up the good work and above all have a happy and HEALTHY New Year.
I'll tell you something mate first of all well done on all your projects because I absolutely love them..your amazing my friend keep doing what your doing..after all at least your motivated to the core...take care pal 👍
