Missile test in Zurich-Höngg
21.6.2019
Translation: machine translated
A "PRO Team Tubeless" compressor pump with pressure release button. A bottle rocket that can fly up to 30 metres. Great fun.
Sometimes fate plays into your hands. Like when I got my hands on the "PRO Team Tubeless" pump and wondered aloud how high I could shoot a bottle rocket with it. About 1.8 seconds later, I hear: "Do lueg, chasch die do ha!" A 180-degree turn on the office chair and my colleague Ramon Schneider holds out a package that he has pulled out from under his desk somewhere between a LEGO set and a bag of dominoes. Hooray! Let the games begin.
An eleven bar for a hallelujah
The pump is made of steel and is anything but a toy. It has a huge stroke, its handle is fully extended to the height of my chest. And it provides up to eleven bar of pressure, which you can build up in a compression chamber and release abruptly via a lever. It's actually designed for tubeless tyres, which are difficult to inflate otherwise. I hope that it will prove its worth as a turbocharger for my bottle rocket.
The rocket consists of a lightweight plastic bottle that stands on the ground on a tail unit made of three attachable plastic parts, which stabilises it in flight. It is filled to around a third with water and sealed with a rubber plug, through the centre of which an air hose runs. This is connected to the pump at the other end via a valve. The rest is simple physics. You simply have to pump until the plug is knocked out of the bottle, the water flows out and the rocket takes off. Hobbyists build something like this from a PET bottle themselves.
Rocket & rocket pumps
Why is it raining?
The rocket should be able to fly up to 30 metres high. That's nice. But I want more. The plan: first build up some pressure in the bottle until it is about to take off. Then pressurise the pump's compressor to 11 bar, flip the lever and shoot the "Water Rocket" into the stratosphere. The excitement builds as the children keep their distance. I pump. It bubbles in the bottle. I stare at the pressure gauge and pump again. It bubbles. No, wait - didn't it just pop? And why is it raining? When I look up, I've already missed the first flight. The children jeer and I'm unhappy. But the following attempts make up for everything.
3, 2, 1 - clack!
After pumping one and a half times, it's time to stop. I fold the lever down and build up pressure in the pump. It's not so easy to reach the maximum 11 bar. But it's worth it. Now the start is predictable and spectacular. A piece of cake, in the truest sense of the word. Pumping would still be too difficult, but even a three-year-old can pull the lever.
Then there's a click. The calm before the storm. A blink of an eye later and it starts. It bubbles, it splashes, it splatters - and the rocket reliably climbs to record heights before gently sailing to the ground. Two little ones and one big kid are happy.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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