Six major kinds of recovery systems are used in rockets:
- Featherweight:
This form of recovery relies on a very small rocket. Designed with a blunt nose, these rockets fall slowly to the ground after the engine has been ejected. Sometimes a streamer will be attached to the engine, but this is not necessary.
- Tumble:
The ejection charge pushes the engine backwards until it is stopped by an oversized engine hook , making the rocket
unstable. The model tumbles as it falls, creating drag to slow it down.
- Parachute:
By far the most common, a parachute acts as an air brake, slowing the descent of the rocket by increasing drag. The size of a parachute will vary depending on the model. Parachutes that are too small will cause the rocket to come down too quickly, and this could damage a model. 'Chutes that are too large, however, may catch the wind and drift for a very long time before reaching the ground.
- Streamer:
Streamers bring a rocket down slowly without the drift that may occur with a parachute. The longer the streamer, the slower the descent.
- Glider:
One of the most interesting forms of recovery, glide rockets are launched like any other rocket, but upon reaching apogee, the model converts to a glider, using wings for lift, circling back to the ground. The booster may be attached to the glider, or it may detach and use one of the more conventional methods (ie: streamer) to fall back to Earth.
- Helicopter: Perhaps the strangest of all (and least common), this method uses vanes that make the rocket spin as it falls. These vanes are activated in various ways by the ejection charge of the engine. If you have designed a rocket like this, we would like to see it. Please send mail to quoll@netsync.net and tell us about it!
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Nicholas Burlett, Nathaniel Grady and William