SLD2025-02 – Friday 19-09-2025, we succesfully flew the NITROCAT rocket, a Half Cat Rocketry Mojave Sphinx clone. Launched on a M1500 nitrousoxide / isopropanol liquid bipropellant rocket engine and reached an apogee of 1.785m. The engine and rocket was made by LD and JVDBE as an introduction into bi liquid rocket engines. The rocket carried
BULKHEAD PRESSURE FITTINGS:Push connect fitting, non-return valve and Quick Disconnect fitted to the oxidizer bulkhead. We had to make and extension for the NPT tap as it is tapped from the inside of the one piece bulkhead. Official max pressure of the push connect fitting is approx 40bar but the fitting held when tested to
Tank bulkheads:After machining the original bulkheads we saw the improvement of the one piece bulkhead as done on the excellent Sinnoh Sphinx+ build. We quickly realized the dual o-ring design was more in line with our previous rocket motor builds and were happy to adopt the upgrade in the NITROCAT as we didn’t machine the
Nozzle & Thrust chamber:We simplified the outside of the nozzle contour for ease of manufacturing on a manual lathe. The 40mm copper insert was pressed fitted into the nozzle therefore removing the need for a garter spring. The 25m throat, as well as the convergent and divergent sections, were machined afterwards.The thrust chamber was made
Coming from experimental APCP motors, LD and myself were ready for a new rocketry project and had been considering designing and building a liquid bipropellant ETHALOX engine for some time. However, with no prior experience in liquid propellants, this represented a significant step up from the relatively easy solid rocket motors we had been making.
SLD2024-02 – On Friday 31-05-2024, we had the 10th anniversary of the Intimidator 5 rocket and its 9th flight. It is not often that we have a 10 year old rocket still in flyable condition. Surely she has her battle scars, the paint job isn’t as shiny as it once was but she still flies
On May 17th 2024 the KILO half PML liner APCP motor was tested. This motor was developed to be launched in the Intimidator 5 rocket for launches in the Netherlands.Design criteria: Apogee between 2-3km. Having limited total impulse 5.000-6.000Ns not overshooting the wavier or needing to cancel a flight in less favorable wind conditions. Relatively
During the pandemic in 2020-21 it became clear that in order to get a new design fin bracket machined I was getting too dependent on external factors. Hence the decision was made to become self-sufficient with the conversion of a manual HBM BF 25 / G0704 mill/drill into a full blown DIY CNC milling machine.
Please find the link to the 2022 GIGA V – Two stage page and keep checking the site for regular updates.
After a great boost, the BOOSTAR-TWO / GIGA IV two stage rocket flew to a disappointing 8+km as the 2nd stage motor experienced a catastrophic anomaly upon delayed ignition at the LRE summer 2021. Please click here for the full launch report.