Beyond awesome: launching a Christmas tree

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2010/01/06 @ 1:51 pm
Category Fun & Games, Home

Oh my gawd, this is hysterical. These guys launched their Christmas tree on 32 rocket engines. The launch is glorious.

Christmas Tree Rocketry: The Art and Science of Holiday Recycling

BY Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture, including the first book about the web (Mosaic Quick Tour) and the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots. He is currently working on a best-of collection of his writing, called Borg Like Me.

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6 Responses to Beyond awesome: launching a Christmas tree

Max Ushakov on January 6th, 2010 at 2:20 pm said:

Discussion (in Russian) here: http://forum.rcdesign.ru/f81/thread169583.html

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Lisa on January 6th, 2010 at 2:28 pm said:

Those are rocket engines, not motors.

And that’s a great video and a very cool idea.

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charlie on January 6th, 2010 at 4:49 pm said:

I better stop buying motor oil, or driving on the motorway then.

Hello John got a new motor ?

Well done done video though, I was slightly disappointed it didn’t go higher or explode.

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John Maushammer on January 6th, 2010 at 7:10 pm said:

Wow! I thought maybe they’d be using some exotic very-large engines, but no — the D-sized engines they used are the largest amateur rocket engines, available in most hobby stores.

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RocketGuy on January 7th, 2010 at 9:59 am said:

Well, they did it pretty safely from what can be seen.

Just two nit picky caveats: 1) “Lawn dart recovery” is frowned upon for large rockets.
2) Since it wasn’t done according to the safety rules, if anything had gone wrong (grass fire, skewering somebodies grandma) they would have been in deep liability. The fire extinguishers were a good idea, but might not have been enough. (I speak from experience on that count).

That said I totally salute them. Sometimes it’s just worth the risk, particularly if you manage that risk carefully. Glad it turned out well (and hilarious).

32 D-12-0 motors is roughly equivalent to a I-380. Hmm, hope somebody was high power certified…

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Jimbob on January 10th, 2010 at 8:21 am said:

These guys are true Americans… If you didnt notice rocketguy safety man, they did the math, they were in a large open field, they had fire suppression. I would rather see a few accidents than kids that never leave the xbox….

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