Whiplash is our solid engine series, we made two of these before moving to more advanced and efficient engines. At its heart a solid rocket engine is gloriously simple, as it contains absolutely no moving parts. The only main components are the bulkheads, the combustion chamber, and the nozzle. Whiplash 1 was made from black steel parts easily available from any major hardware store, and while these engines worked beautifully most of the time, the inherent brittle nature of cheap steel became an issue and we stopped using it after only about 5-6 test fires. Whiplash 2 was much more successful than Whiplash 1, firing over 5 times and each time producing over 25 lbs of thrust for up to 2 seconds.
Both Whiplash engines used the same fuel, which we affectionately named "Chocolate" due to its chocolate like color during production. The fuel was our take on APCP, otherwise known as Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant. The oxidizing agent here obviously being Ammonium Perchlorate, the fuel was a mixture of high grade Epoxy and Iron (III) Oxide was employed as a burn rate catalyst. For safety reasons that should be apparent, no specific percentages will be given. All of this information can be found at Nasa.gov, and it is highly recommended reading everything that nasa has to offer as it is incredibly informative. Whiplash 2 is a fully 304 stainless steel body made entirely from pipe and pipe fittings, while this does make it easy to find parts, it does mean that Whiplash 2 will never be able to fly, as it is simply too heavy. Whiplash 2 is probably the last in the whiplash series as we have moved on in a much different direction. I do plan to post more information on Whiplash in the future but for now it is on hold. We are moving into mainly hybrid engines and some much smaller Rocket Candy solids in our attempt to launch a home built motor. We have also begun working on Bipropellant engines as well. |
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