Rocket Firing RC Submarine

[Guest]

rocket firing R/C sub

I have a missile system on my L.A. sub which was featured on the "Inside R/C" TV show a few years ago. I demonstrated it successfully at the 2003 or '04 SubRegatta in R.I. It is a CO2 system, that shoots a missile about 50 ft. into the air. I don't use any flammable gas in my subs, but any missile system has inherent dangers. See the eye protection I wear when working with the missile, in my Avatar picture on the left.

As to Mike Dory's missile mishap account, I have a similar story. In the 1960's I modified an Estes rocket to make what I thought would be a neat torpedo to launch from an R/C PT boat. I remotely fired it, and it worked as a torpedo for about 5-10 feet, then broke the water surface and flew up high into the air, like a missile, before exploding. After all the screams from the crowd, I retreated from the lake, happy that no one was hurt.

[Guest]

Mylo,
You might want to see

Mylo,
You might want to see some missile photos on my web site. See pages 1 and 2 of my L.A. album- http://groups.msn.com/ArtBrodersmodels/ ... njuan.msnw

[mylo]

Art,

Yes, that's pretty much

Art,

Yes, that's pretty much what I was referring to. Looks like a neat little setup....a little more engineering and maybe it can fire multiple rockets in sequence. 50' of "range" is enough to get the idea, and beats blowing stuff up or catching fire to ....whatever.

Mylo

[hakkikt]

The usual approach to working

The usual approach to working model torpedoes (liquid gas expanding from a small opening at the rear end of the torpedo) makes them basically underwater rockets. So their propolsion will work just as well above water. I wonder if mishaps like Art and Mike told also happen with model torps now and then? Dont these things ever break the surface? Or are they too heavy to fly?

-Harald

[mike dory]

Mylo - I'm not sure

Mylo - I'm not sure about a Compressed air (high pressure CO2 type) But I've seen a Propel, Low pressure type rocket launch at North Lake, on the New London sub base, a number of years ago. As I recall it was from a submerged Ohio class model. There was a photo of it and an article about it in the Report . But I'm having a senior monent and can't seem to recall who had built the model or just when it was. (It will probably come to me in the middle of the night) I do recall it was an outstanding looking and running boat with the rocket going some 45-55 Ft. in the air. Neat stuff. I'm sure Skip Asay or Dave Merriman will recall better, Maybe we can get them to jump in here . Best Wishes Mike Dory

[mike dory]

Harold - You can have

Harold - You can have a " Cook off" of a propel type loaded torpedo It's just like a machine gun when it gets to hot, It will go off all on it's own. The ouside tempature can be high enough in the summer time to increase the pressure to a point, that it will overcome the friction of the pin in the rear of the torpedo. And yes, they will fly through the air, not very far and not with enough force to harm anyone but I've retrived mine a few times from some one's picket basket. That's why we now have very strict ruels in place about loading your boat or torpedo's away from everyone else at/or on a special table and putting the boats in the water right away so as to keep the fish cool and pointed away from shore. The Sub Committee put those rules in effect some years ago. We've never had an accident with a propel system at a regatta. Even before the rules went into effect but there a good additional safety blanket that we can all live with. Once the fish are fired, In the water, I've never seen them be able to jump into the air. Best Wishes Mike Dory

[mike dory]

Guy's I just knew the

Guy's I just knew the name of the modeler would come to me in the middle of the night, It was Dave Coupland boat That put on the rocket firing at North Lake. Well got to run, all this computer stuff is taking away from my building time and I still have to finish up building the Alpha, if I'm going to bring it back to the regatta. The nice thing about building a little smaller is it will fit in the back seat of my Prius. The motorhome will be sitting this trip out. the diesel is just to costly to bring it this year. Best Wishes to all of you on your projects....Mike Dory

[mylo]

Mike !!! .....What's this !!

Mike !!! .....What's this !! ....... you're working on putting a small expensive diesel in your Alpha and calling it the PRIUS ! Can hardly wait to see that.

Mylo