Project Nomad Album

Photos and video provided by James L. Blair
and members of the Project Nomad team.

Updated 29-January-2011 by
Jeff Bytof, webpage editor of Borrego Sky

Project NOMAD (A Study on Rockets), by D. Hogan and J. Blair, May 13, 1969

Project Nomad video on YouTube

JLB: This film documents the 1969/70 San Dieguito High School Project Nomad
Amateur Rocketry study by principals Jim Blair and Dan Hogan with project
support by Randy Sleeper. This study of rocketry was the result of a class
assignment under the tutelage of Physics Instructor Orville B. Karge (1919-1990).
Copied from the original 8mm silent movie, the film chronicles two
separate launch outings to Clark Dry Lake, Borrego Springs, CA. The
rockets were fabricated from electrical metal tubing (EMT) with brazed fin and
bulkhead attachments. The majority of missiles were single stage
ranging in diameters from 3/4 to nearly 4 inches. All were powered by hand-
mixed zinc and sulfur fuel. On one occasion a two-stage rocket was
successfully launched using a specially developed zinc and potassium
nitrate second stage igniter compound. All rocket nozzles except one were
machined from steel to exacting specifications to yield maximal
thrust. The exception nozzle was our first and only attempt at an epoxy and
fiberglass composite type. More of the legacy of this project is available at
the Borrego Sky link.

NOTE (JLB): The editing of this film is a work-in-progress. Be patient with the
near-end-of-movie lengthy blue-sky sequence anticipating our largest
and last missile launch... it's worth it.

CLW: That blue-sky sequence was from an upward-pointing movie cam that I helped
set up under the glass and enclosure from an old TV set, just on the
other side of the mound. It's really easy to miss the rocket at 13:46,
it's only visible for about 2 frames! I'm not sure I noticed it
back when we first watched this. It wasn't leaving a smoke trail at all,
but it was really moving! The smoke comes just afterwards. This shot
was really a blowout, as demonstrated by the ruined launch stand. You
see the remains of the parachute falling from the cloud a few seconds
after the rocket. Mr Karge makes a few appearances here too. Nice!

CLW: The zinc and sulphur fuel burned so fast! After the countdown there would
be 5 or 10 seconds of nothing but a bit of drifting smoke as the
pressure built up behind the blast diapragm. I'd be peering thru the camera
viewfinder with my finger ready on the shutter - but the launch was so fast I
often missed the rocket completely. It ain't slow and ponderous like a
saturn 5...

JAB: Was there a smoke trail over the entire trajectory?

CLW: No, the entire fuel load would burn out in a couple of hundred feet, as I
recall. But our largest rocket did manage to fill the *entire valley*
with smoke, we were worried the authorities would notice, but got lucky. The
launch site was awesomely blasted, launch tower tied up like a pretzel.
It didn't go as planned, the nozzle was blown off the bottom of
the rocket, but it still got pretty high - maybe a thousand feet? Dan's
report might say...

Photos

DATE EVENTS LINK TO IMAGES

1969 Project Nomad 42 hires images

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