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Update: family business
Update: family business
Our original compressed air rocket launcher was turned into a two family business, www.AirRocketWorks.com My parents and a friend, Rick Shertle, launched a Kickstarter business plan back in 2014, and we have been building and updating the launcher ever since, selling kits through our online store, MAKE Magazine, and now Arbor Scientific (a physics experiment supplier). This is also the reason why we visited Kennedy Space Center, as we build a custom launcher system for their educational outreach program and also three more systems for ULA, United Launch Alliance.
For my 5th birthday I got a stomp rocket set. My dad tried it out first and showed me how to launch the rockets. He is big enough to make them go over the house. When I tried they didn't go very far. Also, the yellow plastic stand broke easily. I asked my dad if we could make them go higher and make a stronger stand, so we went to the basement workshop.
We looked through the plumbing fittings and we learned that the black tube of the launcher base is the same size as a 3/8" pipe. He had a couple quick exhaust valves that had been discarded from work that were just the right size. He connected them to a metal tank, a pressure gauge and a foot valve to make it work like the stomp rockets. This is what it looks like:
This was the day we brought it to my preschool and showed it to the class. It was connected to a small air compressor. You would load the rockets, charge the tank, and step on the foot pedal to launch the rockets.
Here is my preschool teacher showing how it works:
Before we demonstrated it for the class we were having fun on the football field shooting field goals from one goal post to the other.
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