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Originally Posted by Joe Wooten
A great idea for a night launch on July 4th....... 
Make it an E12-5 instead so the ejection charge can ignite the hydrogen..... |
Hmmm...while I wouldn't want a Dude myself, you've inspired another type of recovery system...instead of boost-glider (B/G), we could have boost-floater (B/F) models, which would use mostly aerostatic lift (like a balloon or an airship), rather than aerodynamic lift (like a glider or an airplane). It might be like this:
A B/F model rocket might resemble the Dude, which was rather Zeppelin-shaped (or perhaps a lifting body airship, like the Aereon 26 "Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" shape [see:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...iscovery/72142/ ]), but would be heavier than air with its model rocket motor(s) installed. It could be designed to be neutrally buoyant--or very nearly so--when inflated with helium, becoming slightly buoyant (for a short length of time) due to the transmitted heat from an ejection charge (using a metal or ceramic heat transmission strip) and/or from the warm spent motor case. (A type of this model which retained its spent rocket motor or motors--instead of ejecting the motor(s) or a motor pod--would be a "rocket floater" [R/F].) With either variation, as the lifting gas cooled, the model would slowly descend. Also:
Even axis-symmetrical airships such as blimps and modern Zeppelins often fly with the aid of aerodynamic lift (by flying at a slightly nose-up angle, using the hull as an airfoil); in fact, blimps very commonly utilize an airplane-like running takeoff, flying with slightly negative aerostatic lift and using aerodynamic lift to fly level at altitude (the older Zeppelins used aerodynamic lift when necessary to compensate for rain or ice loads, once they were under way). A B/F model rocket of this configuration could also slowly glide down in this way.