bottle rockets

[nightshade]

while I am in childish mood the humble bottle rocket was always my children loved them

[wildone]

nightshade sorry to be so crass ignorant but, what are or were "bottle rockets"? :Confused

Wildone

[Boddie]

I am with you there Wildone, totally in the dark.

[nightshade]

various ways of making them,basic type is a 2 litre pop bottle(empty)find a cork that is a reasonably tight fit in the neck,find one of the long football inflators(less than£1 from sports stores) insert into the cork ,you may have to trim the lenght of the cork,until the open end is clear of the cork
two thirds fill the bottle with water,fit the cork connect to a foot pump prop the bottle up on some bricks or similar,start pumping at a good pressure the bottle hurtles skywards spraying water whoo hoo!
alternatively visit maplins or search online for a more refined product
I have not met anyone yet (especially children) who does not get excited,nearly as good as christmas day,with apologies to the deeply religious

[StuartDH]

I've got one of these in the garage that I made a couple of years ago. 2 litre lilt bottle with a cork in the neck and a hole through it, glued to one end of a hoselock fitting. The other end of the hoselock is attached to a hose, which is connected to a car foot pump. Fill it half full with water, pump up the pressure until you get scared and then release the hoselock.

I've seen these in the shops - I think Maplin sells them - but there's nothing more scary than using one that you've built yourself and could explode any minute

Excellent fun and you should be able to get the rocket to fly at least 150ft

[henrya]

I had a manufactured version of this when I was young (way before 2 litre plastic pop bottles!). It was excellent fun - and aerodynamically shaped, with tail fins, too. I think it was called a VX Rocket. Never measured the maximum flight length, but it taught me a bit about physics - what launch angle to use to get the maximum range. Happy days.

henrya