Make a Stable 2 Liter Bottle Rocket

Many years ago, I went to a Cub Scout activity and came home with a piece of PVC pipe with an O-ring on one end and a tire stem on the other. You could launch a 2 liter bottle rocket from this piece of pipe and it was very precious to me. Over the years, my rocket launcher has improved and so has my rocket. This Instructable is about how to make a 2 liter bottle rocket that will fly straight, true and far.

I wrote the above in 2013. Yeah, 7 years ago and I never finished it. Why? Because when my Hubby and I went to blast off my rocket and get pictures, my hubby, while I was getting my camera out of the car, choose to shoot it off. It went up, according to my hubby, and came back down and landed in the top of a 60 foot tree. I never saw it fly and I never saw it again. It took a while to forgive him, and by then I was living life and not even thinking about it. Recently I started publishing Instructables again. I realized that I needed only to publish one or 2 more and I will have published 200 Instructables. I decide to finish this one because all I had to do was make a rocket and get pictures and I would be done. So here I am adding some pictures and finally publishing this Instructable. Be aware I am not a good photographer if the subject is moving. Yet some how I "got 'er done". Lets Get Started.

2 -empty 2 liter soda bottles Clear packing tape Scissors Marker Piece of string (not shown) Clay Scrape of mat board Pencil (not shown) tape measure (not shown)

then blast off. Now comes the fun stuff. I really tried to get a video of the rocket flying. I flew and rebuilt my rocket 3 times and still no good video. The first picture is off the rocket leaving the launch pad. The second is a picture the rocket taken as it flew. I really couldn't see it. For me, I can't seem to watch the rocket and keep the camera on it. If anyone can make a rocket like this one and get a good video of it flying, I would love to see it. The second picture I saw a white dot. I blew it up and up and up. Yaaassss! It is my rocket. (Plus, none of the white birds in our neighborhood are that small.) :)

Be aware the when a rocket lands, damage can and possibly will be done. This very first rockets (2010) flew long and straight and beautiful. The second rocket (2013) got eaten by a rocket eating tree. The 3rd rocket (2020) flew up and come down beautifully but without video proof. The clay got knocked out of place when it landed. We tried to fly it again, it took a hard turn to the left and landed on neighbors roof. The loose clay totally knocked the balance off and we got if off the roof before they even knew it was even there. I took the rocket apart and re stuffed the clay and tried to align it and make it as balanced as possible. The next day, today (05/30/2020), we tried to fly it again. It flew up straight and still no video proof. When it landed, it looked okay but it wasn't. The last flight was off a little the landing made everything shift so not straight, but a hard landing dislodged the clay as seen in the last picture. It sure wasn't perfect, but it WAS FUN! Enjoy!