Hybrid Rockets: v1

If you've followed my blog for a while (years) you'll note I like rockets. In the more recent years there had been a significant lack of proper exothermic reactions, and this needed to change.

I started matlabbing and thinking of good ways to do liquid-propellant motors, but thought that perhaps I should attempt the more-simple hybrid rocket engines first. On a Saturday morning I hit Home Depot and purchased all the things one needs to make a simple hybrid motor: oxygen, a rubber hose or plastic stock, and enough pipe fittings to put a small hole on the end.



Here you can see I have some rubber hose (the fuel) inside a metal pipe. When the oxygen passes through the hose, the pair REALLY want to burn. Below, the whole setup assembled:



The home depot ox tank comes with a tiny regulator, which later became a problem. However the setup on a whole is extremely simple. Ignition was achieved by inserting a bit of rubber through the nozzle and touching the tube inside, flowing a small amount of ox through the system, and lighting the rubber with a torch. Worked first time!



As stated, we soon needed more oxygen. Luckily Ken had his welding setup on hand....



As you can see from Ken's face, much more mass flow happened...



Of course, things quickly progressed from there. Ken noted he had an idea, and quickly returned with a 10' length of black iron pipe and a similar piece of PVC that fit inside. He drilled holes in two caps, threaded them on, and we were ready to roll.



Fortunately enough for us, we could only get enough oxygen flow for about 6" of PVC to burn. Regardless, that produced a TON of black deathsmoke, heat, and noise. Had we had a larger flow regulator, the thing would have killed everyone in town. We'll have to order one for next time.