news10.htm

Amateur Rocket Launch Assist (ARLA)

Newsletters and Random Thoughts

This page will include progress reports, notes, random brain farts, and other ramblings.


January 23, 2002

Damage Recovery

I just realized that I haven't updated this since August. Not long after that my internet provider sold out to Earthlink, my computer died, my shop was built but requires numerous finishing touches, my new computer crashed, and a host of other minor excuses came up. But I have conducted a small amount of testing.

My ISP, Lancaster Internet (many a.k.a.s) sold out to Earthlink. Earthlink dumped me into one of their subs which did not provide anywhere near the service I was used to. After a month of long waits on the phone, vain attempts to activate features, then realizing that those features were not available I switched to Earthlink.net. Another month of effort and I realized that the advertised features were not equivelant to what I had had. I got burned out on trying to get it all to work and sulked for the last few months. The only reason I would recommend Earthlink is because they will probably end up buying all but AOL eventually. Starting with Earthlink just reduces the number of times people get bumped around.

Yesterday I quit sulking and signed up for another $19.95 (I now pay for three) web site but am getting my own URL which is www.alt-accel.com. At first it will just point to my Earthlink site but eventually it will become the primary site.

My computer died, or at least was very sick. It kept locking up, sometimes every 5 minutes. I thought it was the computer so I bought a bare bones and upgraded the mother board, CPU, RAM, and such. When I plugged in my old HD it crashed and I lost everything not backed up. My e-mail was backed up but the files were grossly corrupt. I finally decided that the problem might be my Win 98 disk and so upgraded to XP. XP didn't like my HD either and I lost about a month of e-mails. The good news is that XP has been running for two weeks without one lock up. I did have to go to town and buy a new modem that had an XP driver.

My shop was completed in October but I had no idea how much time it would take to put in the 150 outlets, new shelves, move stuff from the other shop, put in a heater, and etc. I'm still working with the contractor to get the last of the inspections done so I can make the last of the modifications I want.

Air Tanks on the Cheap

By accident I found that 55 gal drums can hold a considerable amount of pressure. I can get these used, though slightly dinged, for free. By welding several of these end-to-end (and maybe even side-by-side) I can build a cheap air tank suitable for direct connect engine testing and launching vehicles. As a test I took a typically dinged drum, filled it with water, then slowly raised the air pressure. At about 30 psi the ends belled out significantly. At 55 psi I chickened out because by this time there was quite a bit of air in the drum and, were it to shoot upward, it might cut the power lines to my neighbor. I didn't think he would like that and, besides, I only need about 40 psi for what I want to do.

I've settled on six-inch diameter PVC for the launch tube and the ducting from the air tank to the launch tube. I'm now trying to settle on a design for the air valve but most of my ideas require 8-10 inch tubes with the valve inside. An interim is a simple butterfly valve inside the six inch tube and accept the slight losses.

Direct Connect Engine Tests

Once I get the valve built I'll start on the test stand for the direct connect engine test facility. This will be somewhat complex as I want to run the engines in the vertical position, which means that the exhaust (including unburned fuel) must be redirected out the door of the shop. It must also be mobile to get it out of the way when I have to work on a vehicle in that bay. But this shouldn't be too difficult.

Launch Tube

I've settled on an 80 ft long, six inch diameter launch tube of PVC, Schedule 40. I think I have a fairly good plan for a launch stand that is easily transported and erected on site. I can test it out at home so long as I don't light off the engine. That would get adverse attention from the FAA and pose a fire risk.

FAA

Speaking of the FAA, I've discussed amateur ramjets with several people working small rocket designs. The concensus seems to be that it is better to work with the FAA than to surprise them. The downside of this is that it will probably take a lot of time that I don't have to contact the right people, explain what I want to do, wait for them to digest it, then make whatever changes they want. The alternative is to launch it like an amateur rocket and see what happens. I'm still undecided.

Converting to a Team Effort?

I've thought about going to a team effort like John Powell and John Carmack. I've hired a high school kid to help around the ranch to give me more time but I'm still undecided about the ramjet stuff.


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This Page created January 21, 2002

Last Updated January 21, 2002