Nike Smoke Drag Race

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ƒ/4

45 mm

1/3,200

200

Like NASCAR… same rocket, same motor, launched with all igniters wired in parallel. The K2045 is a bit like a canon. It burns with 470 pounds of thrust for 0.65 seconds. The thrust ends when the rocket is about 100 ft up, but they are going so fast, they then coast to 7,000 ft.

Looks like the far left pad won the race.

But this is undoubtedly the closest drag race I have ever seen; using successive camera frames, I measure the gap between first and last place as a mere 0.05 seconds!

Dairy Aire 2012 just concluded today, a launch event hosted by Tripoli Central California.

10 responses to “Nike Smoke Drag Race”

jurvetson

May 21, 2012 at 2:00 am

Eight chutes overhead… like synchronized swimmers on the buddy system. =)

T-shirt logo by James Dougherty, one of the racers. Names on the logo match the lineup on the pad… Jimmy F wins the prize.

Reply
Astrocatou

May 21, 2012 at 3:36 am

great shot

Reply
scleroplex

May 21, 2012 at 1:35 pm

very cool! 🙂

Reply
solerena

May 21, 2012 at 2:07 pm

Looks fun:)

Reply
jurvetson

May 21, 2012 at 4:07 pm

cool frame grab sequence from the Richard’s rocket’s video (his is the colorful one on the far right):

Here are the flyers, from Left to Right (name, kit, dry weight, notes):
Jimmy Franco — Polecat Aerospace — 4.6 lbs. — 1/4" buttons, motor eject
Steve Sawyer — Performance— 8lbs. — ARTS2, RedBee
Karl Baumheckel — Performance—10 lbs. — flame print on rocket makes it look fast
James Dougherty — Performance—10.5 lbs. — 1/4" Buttons, Aeropack rear, motor eject
Gary Walker — Mad Cow Rocketry—10 lbs. — "Black Smoke"
Jack Garibaldi — Performance — 10.5 lbs.
Ron Swenson — Performance — unknown
Richard Dierking — carrying the camera

Lesson: Build it light! "Jimmy also described the build: Did a custom airfoil effect on the 1/4” thick ply. Fins are 7/16” thick at the root and ~5/16” at the tip. Then the airfoil tapers to the leading and trailing edge down to ~3/16”. Fins will be composite of 1/4” birch ply, 3/32” basswood, west, and 1.5 fiberglass." No electronics; motor ejection.

Richard’s rocket on the far right looks like it tied for third, and it was carrying a video cam.

Reply
Vox Sciurorum

May 21, 2012 at 5:54 pm

Reminds me of the "dense pack" siting option for ICBMs in the 1980s.

Reply
meta59361

May 22, 2012 at 5:04 pm

I took 240fps video of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OxyZOSqxP8

Reply
Hans Ku

Jun 4, 2012 at 7:10 am

Are you going to be at ROCstock this weekend?

Reply
Niall Oswald

Jun 13, 2012 at 7:36 am

When I flew a CTI VMax motor, someone asked ‘was it supposed to do that ?’ – more of a bang than a whoosh, the rocket just seemed to jump 100 ft in an instant. Great photo.

Reply
g.a.q.

Feb 9, 2013 at 8:41 pm

this puts the Iranian program to shame…

Reply

Nike Smoke Drag Race

10 responses to “Nike Smoke Drag Race”

Leave a Reply to scleroplex Cancel reply