Drones & Vehicles

Crayon rockets!

Crayon rockets!

This project combines two of my favorite things: crayons and rockets. It may have taken John Coker 12 years to complete this project (hey, who among us hasn’t had a case of lingering works-in-progress?) but the result was more than worth it. He’s even included a step-by-step of how he made the rockets. The detail in matching the Crayola design is pretty impressive. I just want to know if he could find a way to add in that awesome Crayola smell.

Unusual mechanism:  The rolleron

Unusual mechanism: The rolleron

Yes, this is a missile. Sorry about that. But it turns out the AIM-9 Sidewinder is the only well-documented example I can find, on the web, of a machine that employs these interesting little widgets called “rollerons.” See the little metal pinwheels at the trailing corners of the fins? The rolleron is basically an air-driven gyroscope, as Tom Harris explains over on How Stuff Works:

MORE water rocket awesomeness

We’ve covered George Katz and his water rocket projects here in the past. In this recent video, he shows testing of a lightweight in-line parachute deployment rig, as well as some additional footage of the group’s most recent launch day. In-line Deployment Mechanism More: Awesome DIY water rockets with drop-away boosters In the Maker Shed: […]