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: […]

“Art rocketry”

“Art rocketry”

All card-carrying members of the NAR may want to look away now. The West Oakland Rocketry Club, based out of West Oakland CA, breaks pretty much every rule in the NAR Handbook. This is not rocketry for kids, or those who are particularly safety-concerned. Dubbing what they do “art rocketry,” the group (a lot of […]