We finished making two more balloons. With our second balloon we changed a few things. We braced the engine wire, raised the fuel punctures in the engine, and we glued the cans of the engine together.
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| Amber with our second balloon. |
With our first flight, nothing really happened. The top of the balloon was very warm but would not lift from the ground. However, the glue completely melted on the cans, so they fell apart. Since the balloon didn't go up in flames, we decided to take it inside and fix it up. So while we were inside, we changed the engine design. Instead of using three cans, we shortened it down to two.
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| We went from this, a three can engine (one of the cans is missing) |
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| To this, a two can engine, with the top not cut off |
First test flight of the day.
With our second test flight, we still didn't get lift off. However, we had a problem. By the time we were ready for our second flight of the day, the wind had picked up a bit. This threw our entire test flight off. We tried to hold the balloon before the balloon lifted, but the wind blew one of the sides toward the center, and it caught on fire.
Second test flight of the day.
Good news! We, once again, learned A LOT from these test flights. Thank you for prototypes. So for our third balloon we will be trying some different things. First we will be structuring the inside of the balloon with wire. This way the balloon does have more structure and won't be too affected by any stray wind. We are also going to keep our new engine design of only two cans. Along with that, we are not going to cut the off of the first can. This makes it so that there is a smaller and more focused hole for the burning fuel to come through into the balloon. Finally, we will only launch on a good day. That means little to no wind! That's why I'm here now. It's windy and I need to update this blog. So there you are. Cross your fingers for a good launch day tomorrow.
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