Joes on Mythbusters.
Rudy Panucci
Later, Rudy
ScottE
> Passengers in scale rockets. Don't seem to be flying true so far.
>
> Later, Rudy
Looked to be a GIJoe Apollo astronaut figure in the background of the
workshop scene, too. Can't miss that misshapen helmet.
ScottE
The Buffalo Soldier
so it was very cool to see one of my favorite toys featured so
prominently in one of their scale experiments. They appeared to be
40th anniversary Joes, two of them, which were used to test two
different passenger rocket designs. Fun stuff! The full scale rocket
test (with a full scale stand-in for a human being) was very cool too,
but ultimately busted the myth and the dummy was burned to a crisp.
Rudy Panucci
The full scale rocket
> test (with a full scale stand-in for a human being) was very cool too,
> but ultimately busted the myth and the dummy was burned to a crisp.
I bet they revisit that one sometime. The original myth was too vague
and there were too many variables. I'd like to see them try to get the
rocket up so they could see if the parachute would deploy.
Later, Rudy
ScottE
This episode touches on another of my active hobbies, high power
sport rocketry.
It looked to me like their motor casing failed. There's a burst of
flame out of the top of the rocket as it comes up to pressure. That
may have been their parachute pyro charge going off prematurely.
Later, you can see a jet of flame coming out of the side of the rocket
just before the flight goes awry. A shot of the wreckage on the ground
shows a substantial hole in the side of the passenger compartment.
It looked to me like the flight was acceptably stable until that burn
through. It wasn't going to go to 300 meters, but it looks like it
would have had a boost, coast, apogee, descent flight path.
Given that they already adopted modern manufacturing techniques for
the rocket, I think they should have just used a proven high power
motor design. There are several manufacturers of casings, nozzles, and
propellant mixtures to choose from. They've used those before in other
rocket based myths.
It's not like they were trying to prove you could do it with bamboo,
black powder, and goose feathers.