Rocketbelt Convention, Day Three

[beamjockey]

In addition to my other claims to fame, I have now played the ukulele of the First Man To Fly An Untethered Rocket Belt.



Sunday was the final day of the Rocketbelt Convention held at the Niagara Aerospace Museum in Niagara Falls, New York.


On Sunday, I caught Harold Graham posing for pictures in his bedraggled original rubber suit, and took the opportunity to play a few bars of "Five Foot Two." Here he is saying, and I quote directly, "I can see why you're not in the music business."


Captain Hal repeated his performance of "My Rocket Belt Days" on Sunday.


Ky Michaelson got lots of video footage of Eric Scott and the Go Fast/Jet P.I. rocket belt (which appears to be hanging on a garment trolley).


Eric Scott pressurizes his rocket belt before flight, causing a little snort of steam to vent from the exhaust nozzles. I was surprised to see that these guys don't wear eye protection. Note hose and water buckets used to wash away peroxide in emergencies or after landing.


Eric Scott, the Go Fast rocketman, takes off outside the museum on his Sunday demonstration flight. Spectators have been warned to cover their ears.



In the conference room at the Niagara Aerospace Museum, I came across these two 1950s-era spaceplane models. The left one appears to be BOMI (Bomber Missile), the Bell proposal for a skip-glider. I have yet to identify the one on the right, which says "Bell Aircraft" on the nose, so presumably it predates the creation of Bell Aerospace. I could ask the museum folks, but I haven't yet.


Sunday night, I went for a walk down to Goat Island to see the Falls. On the way, I learned that a statue had been erected of the King of Alternating Current, Nikola Tesla.

Comments

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

Thank you again for the continuing stream of pictures.

The racing-style outfit on Scott finally coaxed the penny to drop: eventually we'll see rocket-pack races on ESPN.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I have now played the ukulele of the First Man To Fly An Untethered Rocket Belt.

But did you learn the rocket belt song to pass along to the rest of us?

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

Those are all great shots (the ones over on your Flickr account, as well)! I wish I could have been in two places at once, and attended, drat it.

I see by looking at all those shots of Eric Scott that ectomorphs only need apply for rocketbelt flights. Double drat it.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I see by looking at all those shots of Eric Scott that ectomorphs only need apply for rocketbelt flights. Double drat it.

It's the Cold Equations: hydrogen peroxide allows you to make a simple, light, and relatively safe rocket belt, but it's got mediocre performance, so you have to consume propellant at a ferocious rate in order to get enough thrust to lift the device plus the pilot. And there's a limit to the weight you can carry on your back.

The cruel numbers, which I posted the other day, are 47 pounds propellant, 83 pounds empty weight, up to 300 pounds of thrust.

I suppose you could make one that had more thrust than the original Bell Rocket Belt, but it would have even shorter flight time than 20 seconds.

Heavier people might consider a design like this one, Bell's POGO, which was made from parts of two Rocket Belts.

[charlie-meadows.livejournal.com]

I was interested to note that Tesla's memorial was placed there during the historical window when there was a Yugoslavia. When he was born, his hometown was in the Croatian sector of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (so it is now in Croatia). [When I was in junior high, learning about the Balkan states, I never imagined Bosnia and Serbia would exist in my *future*.]

Checking out his Wiki bio, I discovered that Sam Clemens was one of his pals and a frequent visitor to his lab in the mid-1890s! (see photo available there)