Rocketteer

[john e. holliday]

Just watched the movie.  It was kind of hokey but I enjoyed it.  The pylon racers looked like they were a little close to each other.  Also after a gentleman put on a display a couple of years ago at local race track it made wonder how he got such economy out of his rocket.   The gentleman that did our show said 30 to 40 seconds was max duration for him.   Anyway I did enjoy the movie.     

[Brett Buck]

Also after a gentleman put on a display a couple of years ago at local race track it made wonder how he got such economy out of his rocket.   The gentleman that did our show said 30 to 40 seconds was max duration for him. 

      A vastly more complex version, using better propellants, might get a 3 minutes or so, maybe twice as long - still too little to be of much use on Earth. It would be closer to working on the moon (where they envisioned using it), since the thrust would only have to be one-sixth, extending the duration by roughly the same factor, but still too little for practical transportation. A car works better:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Roving_Vehicle

and even better if it is nuclear-powered:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_%28rover%29


     Brett

[Carl Cisneros]

Doc/Brett

this is the one you guys need

Carl

[Dan McEntee]

   There have been "rocket belts" since the 60's, and one was featured in a Bond movie. They used a rocket propulsion system, I'm sure Brett can explain the fuel and how it worked, but it had a very limited burn time. I have seen these fly on TV at Super Bowls, Disneyland and such. This system is pure jet propelled, probably runs on JP-4? Probably a much safer system, if you can use that word. I got to see the guy that had a strap on set of wings with four small turbine engines strapped to it at Oshkosh a few years back. He jumped out of an airplane, lit the engines and could cruise around and even gain altitude, but had to launch from an airplane and recover by parachute. This system looks like a lot more fun, and like I said before, a "safer" system if that is possible.
   Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Brett Buck]

I thought James Bond had one of those, was that all fake?

   The James Bond scene (cold open of Thunderball) used the real Bell Rocket Belt. It had a maximum flight time of about 20 seconds, as I recall. It used hydrogen peroxide/t-stoff through a catalyst to cause it to decompose into very high temperature steam, then vented out the two De Laval nozzles to provide the propulsion. It was a real Army program, later looked at for Apollo, but ultimately impractical for any real use aside from movies and demonstrations. The flight shown was about the extent of what it could do.

   As noted above, using a real bi-propellant engine would have raised the specific impulse (rocket measure of fuel economy, literally, lb-sec of impulse per lb of propellant) from maybe 100 seconds to possibly 250-300, increasing the duration to maybe 60 seconds, but still far too short to be of any real use.

   The jet-pack is the same sort of thing, implemented with small turbojets instead of rockets, which of some limited utility, and much better duration because you take one of your propellants from the air (air...)

      Brett

[dennis lipsett]

I'm old enough to remember the old Republic serials of Rocketman. A middle aged slightly paunchy individual who wore a really cool helmet along with a twin rocket pack on his back. No real flight  controls. Sleek looking with only a knob for a control on his chest plate., probably to control the engine output to get down. Lots of shots of him running and jumping and then jump to flight shots. He mainly got into fights with assorted criminals and embellished the art of street fighting.
at that age I don,t know of any kid who didn't want one of them instead of a car for their 16th birthday.

Do a Google and read about Command Cody  the Rocket man.great fun.

Dennis

[Carl Cisneros]

Dennis
I remember watching Commando Cody on Saturday mornings on TV.
And the Radar Men from the Moon.

loved that show then

Carl

[Tony Drago]

Don't forget Captain Video, Space Patrol and Rocky Jones Space Ranger.

[Larry Renger]

It works the same way as the 36 shooter revolvers in the old westerns. Not to mention Winchester lever actions with 1/2” accuracy at 300 yards. And don’t forget, fanning the action does nothing to reduce accuracy.

Oh and don’t forget shooting accurately, one hand held with a pistol, backwards from a galloping horse. Or shooting a pistol out of a hand without ruining the hand, or removing it.

Anyone here shot a cross bow? Would you want to be William Tell’s kid?

I suspect Goliath was a matter of pure luc on David’s part barring the obvious Devine intervention.

Give me a modern 50mm tuned Sniper Rife any old day, a competent spotter, weather data aNd I am your man.

 

[Will Hinton]

One recent falicy that really made me shake my head was on Blue Bloods when Danny Reagen hid behind a car and counted the 16 rounds the bad guy fired at him and then stood up and plugged the guy.  What idiatic fool is going to fire all the rounds in his magazine at a guy he can't see behind a car?
My Henry 22 holds 16 rounds, then runs dry, makes me wonder how those 32-20 wnchester 73's kept going?  Good points, Larry.  Heck, I can't even be that close at 300 yards with my AR15!

[Mark Mc]

One of the greatest regrets in my life was having to turn down Bill Turner.  Bill Turner owned Repeat Aircraft.  He built the black and yellow GeeBee Model Z replica, as well as the red Miss Los Angeles used in The Rocketeer.  Repeat Aircraft specialized in custom order builds of 30's and 40's race planes.  Or, if you actually had the remains of a racer, Repeat Aircraft would restore it.  Back when I made my first trip to FlaBob, Bill turner asked me to come work in his shop.  That would have been my dream job.  Unfortunately, there's no way I could have afforded to live down there on what the job would have paid.  At the time he was about 2/3 finished on his Roscoe Turner Meteor, just starting on a Caudron, and had the remains of a 30's racer in the back of the hangar awaiting attention. Man!  That would've been a job....

Mark

[Dave Hull]

McMark,

I grew up across the river from Flabob. (The name is a contraction of Flavio Madriaga and some other guy....) It was always a home for homebuilders before there was an EAA. They are chapter 1. There was always something cool being built by Repeat Aviation. I liked the Gee Bee, but the most ambitious probably was the de Havilland Comet racer.  And across the way, there were always a bunch of ladies sewing fabric onto Starduster wings as fast as they could build them.  Good times to be a kid....

Divot McSlow

[Mark Mc]

Dave,  it was FLAvio Madriaga and BOB Bogan.

[Dave Hull]

Thanks, McMark. I saw Flavio around, but don't think I ever saw Mr. Bogan.  It is owned by a non-profit under Tom Wathen, I believe. It has kept it from being overrun by developers.

Divot

[Steve Helmick]

For some reason, I keep thinking that was the name of the movie with the hero flying a Gee Bee Z. If not, what was the correct title?  Steve

[Mark Mc]

For some reason, I keep thinking that was the name of the movie with the hero flying a Gee Bee Z. If not, what was the correct title?  Steve

Steve, that is correct.  The hero of the movie, Cliff Secord, is test flying a yellow and black GeeBee Model Z at the beginning when it gets shot down.  Cliff later becomes The Rocketeer, and at the end of the movie is gifted a white and black GeeBee Model Z by Howard Hughes.

Mark

[Mark Mc]

Thanks, McMark. I saw Flavio around, but don't think I ever saw Mr. Bogan.  It is owned by a non-profit under Tom Wathen, I believe. It has kept it from being overrun by developers.

Divot

Dave, my fun story about FlaBob:  I was there by coincidence when they were having their annual air show.  Don Madriaga was in charge at the time.  There was a man called "Captain Mac" giving barnstorming rides in his white Travel Air 3000.  Don told Captain Mac that he could give rides from FlaBob if he agreed to give Don's daughter a free ride.  Don wanted to get her in the air because she was kind of afraid of flying.  She had seen her grandparents, Flavio and Bertha(?) die in a crash on take-off at the end of the FlaBob runway, and her brother crash into Mount Rubidoux and die there by the airport.  So she was naturally disinclined to fly.  I was standing right there and Don said to his daughter, "The Travel Air takes two people in the front seat.  If anything happens, Mark there can take over."  What?  Me turn down a free ride?!?

So we get in the front cockpit and strap in.  The entire time she's patting my knee and trying to reassure me by saying, "It'll be alright, Mark.  It'll be alright."  So we go up, fly around for a while, do a couple of wing overs, and land.  We get out and she is smiling.  But, the entire time we are in the plane, and she's counting on me to be the safety pilot if anything goes wrong, she never quite notices that there are no controls in the front cockpit....

[Steve Helmick]

Huh....maybe I didn't see the whole movie. It was on TV. Probably was interrupted for "Say Yes To The Dress" or "America's Got Talent"? No, not my cuppa tea, but SWMBO digs that crap.  Steve

[Brett Buck]

Huh....maybe I didn't see the whole movie. It was on TV. Probably was interrupted for "Say Yes To The Dress" or "America's Got Talent"? No, not my cuppa tea, but SWMBO digs that crap.  Steve

  What about "Botched" or "Dr. Pimple Popper"?

    Brett

[john e. holliday]

So we get in the front cockpit and strap in.  The entire time she's patting my knee and trying to reassure me by saying, "It'll be alright, Mark.  It'll be alright."  So we go up, fly around for a while, do a couple of wing overs, and land.  We get out and she is smiling.  But, the entire time we are in the plane, and she's counting on me to be the safety pilot if anything goes wrong, she never quite notices that there are no controls in the front cockpit....
[/quote] 
My response to reply #17.

This is funny in a way, but would have done if she had noticed>