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There's a fairly robust community that builds and launches water rockets. You know, regular rockets in pretty much every way except for the fact that they use pressurized water and air to launch into the sky. One such water rocket from a South African team of students at the University of Cape Town just broke the world altitude record with it's most recent attempt.
The university team managed to grab the record thanks in part to an extremely lightweight frame. The rocket's frame weighs just over three pounds counting the on-board camera, parachute system, flight computer, and carbon fiber skeleton. The team had tried for the record two times before but had been plagued by equipment failure and air leaks. The third time took.
The group launched their rocket, which clocks in at around nine feet in height, two different times on August 26th to get an average between the two. The first made it to 2,740 feet and the second to 2,707 feet for a world record of 2,723 feet, averaged. That handily beat the previous 2,044 foot record, set in 2007 by a U.S. group.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Monday October 12 2015, @06:09PM
Launching those D engines without the actual rocket to surround them in -- that's fun! And dangerous as all get out (which makes it more fun...)
Also fun is launching water rockets sideways. Maybe not a rocket of that size... but everyone gets wet and those things are really hard to aim and don't hit hard when you're using a $10 toy store model.