05-16-2013, 02:13 PM
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Master Modeler
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
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Originally Posted by ghrocketman
Somebody with a set of STONES should give MAMBY-PAMBY safety a LONG RIDE on a LARGE BOOT off a SHORT PIER and start DRILLING the core of motors to make REAL B14's on an AUTOMATED (non-manned) machine. If an 'incident' occurs, nobody is hurt and presents no real safety issue anyway. If distributed through normal 'discount' channels such as Hobby Lobby and Michaels, I would venture the B14-0 and B14-5 would out sell any other B motor except the B6-4 ! Remember Bigger (14 vs. 6 or 4) numbers ALWAYS sell better from an as-inine yet true marketing standpoint. That's why idiots randomly buy D12-7's and C6-7's when they don't know which to pick. Any way one slices it, as long as the price is competitive, the B14 will sell. Short of that even a B8 would be a VAST improvement over the engines we get now.
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I've seen it (and heard it, via conversations in hobby shops) happen--"This one's better, it's a 'see-six-SEVEN!'--while they were buying an accompanying rocket kit that required shorter-delay motors...
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Originally Posted by ghrocketman
I still have a supply of both drilled-core and pressed-core B14's in my OOP motor supply. While the pressed-core motors do provide a pretty good liftoff punch, the drilled-core ones have a much more vigorous 'kick'. I have all flavors of the pressed-core B14 left but only have B14-0's and B14-7's with drilled-cores. Have B8's in all flavors but the Centuri-only B8-3, which I have NEVER physically seen in-person. Have seen several photos of that one that existed only one year.
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Although I can't speak for him, of course, there is a potential future supplier for such motors. John Wickman, the President of Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Company, is a former Aerojet engineer. He and Hermann Oberth's son developed a new, low-cost solid propellant that uses phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate, and he teaches amateur rocketry courses and sells publications on making these rocket motors (see: http://www.space-rockets.com/ ). Unlike G. Harry Stine, who categorically stated "There is no safe way to make a rocket motor of any type," Mr. Wickman counters (and has demonstrated numerous times, through his motor-making courses) that anyone who takes prudent safety precautions can make his or her own successful--and reliable--rocket motors (his students static fire and flight test their motors as the "final exam"). |