Shaken, Not Stirred

and

The Three Martini Launch

The Official Rocket of

I got home and began to wonder what I could do with it, when it struck me:

Having seen many different spools fly; I figured, if I turn the glass upside down, why can’t the martini fly?

IF

THEN

Flight Prep

Flight

The Three Martini Launch

Rocket Martinis on the Web

Construction

Construction is pretty easy.

• Obtain a PLASTIC martini glass (actual glass or crystal is not recommended)

• Rough up the bottom interior of the glass to allow epoxy bonding to the polypropylene

• Use some alcohol (isopropyl or denatured alcohol, not vermouth or gin) to remove any oils that will impede bonding in the sanded area.

• Cut a 1” piece of BT-50 tubing.
  

• Take a spent 24 mm casing, add tape to create a snug fit, then insert casing into one end into the piece of BT-50 about 3/4",so that the motor casing is about 1/4” from the opposite end

• stir up some epoxy and spread thickly around the exterior of the BT-50 tube, around the exposed end (Here, I have used Power-poxy marine epoxy, it has a long cure time, and the color and consistancy identical to marshmallow creme.)

• With the glass place right side up, place the gooey end of tube/casing assembly into the glass, then adjust the tube/casing so it is perpendicular to glass base.

• A two-axis level like this one is handy to insure that the motor tube will be coaxial to the glass.

• Allow epoxy to cure.

• Pull out the casing. If the epoxy pops out along with the casing, clean the surfaces then re-bond in place with thin CA.

• Now you need to make holes for the launch rod. First drill a 1/8" whole parallel to the motor mount tube. You might want to use as dremel to to make the hole rather a drill, as it can be difficult to start the hole on an angled surface. Use the dremel tool to create the pilot hole, then the final hole using a drill press or cordless hand drill.

• Then, use an 1/8" launch rail to mark a hole in the glass base. Line it up with the

• After assuring your holes are pretty well in line enarge them to insure that the launch rod will slide through with no binding. Make the hole extra big, to allow for missalignment of the holes. A 0 1/4" hole will be fine.

• Now you should be done. If you spent more than $2 making this rocket, you really screwed up.

Right James?

Right.

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Flight Prep

1. Place glass right side up.
2. insert motor
3. install igniter
4. Garnish with a pimento stuffed olive.
5. Optional: If you are requiered to recover your spent motor casing, attach a paper streamer to the motor with tape, wrap streamer around motor, and then tape exposed end to interior of glass in a manner that will not interfere with the launch rod.

Shown is my first attempt of a streamer using vinyl surveyors tape. It didn't work too well. (See the photo below).

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Flying Shaken not Stirred

Test flight at our parent's cabin

The martini rocket is incredibly stable. I have flown this with a D-motor using only a 9” long 1/8” rod with no ill effects. It has also been flown on an Estes E9, and will presumably fly well with C11 as well. Length of the ejection charge is immaterial. Boost is nice and straight, with the glass starting to shimmy after burn out. The glass falls slowly enough that no recovery system is needed. It’s sure to draw onlooker’s attention at club launches.

Notice that chunks of the vinyl streamer material is shedding away in burning hunks. After reviewing this picture, I decided the paper would be the preferred streamer material =>

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Stefan about to fly his Martini on an E9

Public Debut at the MASA August 2005 Launch

The Three Martini Launch.

The logical extension of Shaken not Stirred is the Three Martini Launch, which we performed multiple times at GHS 2005. Advancing on the same path would be Happy Hour (Many many martini rockets). Any of our readers is welcome to attempt it.

These photos below pretty well document the flight characteristics of the martini rocket.

One's glass is off with a head start

All boosting nice and straight, with only a hint of swagger

Approaching apogee, the shimmy is pretty apparent

Motor Burn out.

Click [HERE] to see the fascinating movie!

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Rocket Martinis on the Web.

Just to be sure that I had an original idea here, I surfed the web for “Rocket Martini” and "Martini Rocket"

I found this cocktail shaker: Supposedly rocket shaped but I am sure it is marketed seasonally as the Egg shaped Easter cocktail shaker, and the football shaped Super bowl edition shaker. Look for it in the National Proctologist Association membership premium gift catalog under glycerin suppository shaped cocktail shaker.

Is it just me, or does the alien look like Tim Conway?