At this moment, I'm in rocket mode. Have been since last fall, will be for most of the year. I'm working rocketry with no less than three classes at my local elementary school, and have gotten a few kids round the block into it as well.
Projects are just whizzing round my head, taking inspiration from the darnedest places. Like these crayon rockets I'm doing. My neighbor's boys were playing "light saber" with these 2 foot crayon banks found at a local dollar store. To my surprise, a BT-70 tube fits neatly inside the plastic body. This paved the way for an inner tube and an engine stuffer tube for a 24mm D -E engine. The fins are joined through -the -wall style, or TTW, to the engine mount and centering rings.
It is also capable of carrying a payload, say, an egg in the coupler and nose cone area.
The prototype flew beautifully with a D-12-7 and could do even more wonderful things if built with a 29mm mount. An unwitting design for a TARC rocket. More on that contest in another post.
Going back for more of the crayon banks, I found that most of them were gone. On the way out, I noticed a new seasonal item, plastic baseball bat and ball sets. Hrrm......
That caused this idea to flourish.......
But back to the crayons. They've been the hit of the school. The 3rd graders dubbed them "Crarockets". Mrs Adams 5th grade class got to sign the prototype. This just goes to show you; if it looks right, it'll fly right. In the case of the bat rocket, now known as "The Slugger" if you build it, it will fly.
The build log will soon be shown on my school rocketry web site. I also learned of a 3 foot tall, 4 inch diameter version of this bank which I also have in my clutches. I'm engineering my own version of this previously flown crayon as we speak.
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