12-12-2009, 12:30 AM
|
 |
Master Modeler
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 6,507
|
|
I've seen old "quick-and-dirty" launch controller plans in early model rocketry publications that used a spring-loaded doorbell button and no safety key or continuity light--the circuit was safed by disconnecting one battery clip from the lantern battery.
The Electro-Launch would have been practical with Solar igniters, and maybe even with the Centuri Sure Shot igniters that used thinner nichrome. My father took one look at the Electro-Launch system and instead bought the 12 volt version of that old FS-5 Astron Launch Controller and a wooden Tilt-A-Pad. That amount of current instantly fired even the old nichrome-and-pyrogen Astron igniters, and they always burned in two from the much greater heat. (The "pyrogen-free" nichrome wire 'in between' the igniters also worked well as plain "hot wire" igniters on those rare occasions when we ran out of the pyrogen-dipped ones due to misfires). It was also easy to make replacement safety keys for the FS-5 out of steel music wire.
The shaving cream-size can of helium in the Aeronautical Lab Kit was for the balloon experiment. The kit contained several helium balloons, a balance-beam hot air balloon experiment, a balsa hand-launched glider, a propeller-driven balsa "stick" car, a rubber-powered "stick" helicopter, a rubber-powered balsa-and-tissue model airplane called the Arctic Explorer, a rubber band-launched rocket with parachute recovery (similar in layout to the Italian Quercetti toy rockets), the solid propellant model rocket, and several other experiments that I don't remember.
|