Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 05

SODA BOTTLE ROCKET

By Steve Lodefink

Photography by Topher Lucas

You don’t have to be Burt Rutan to start your own rocket program. With a few empty soda bottles and some PVC pipe, you can build a high-performance water rocket. >>

Set up: p.82 Make it: p.83 Use it: p.88

LIQUID FUEL ALTERNATIVE

I’ve been a big fan of model rocketry since I built my first Estes Alpha back in third grade. Nothing is more exciting to a 9-year-old proto-geek than launching a homemade rocket. But flying those one-shot solid-fuel rockets can burn a hole through a young hobbyist’s wallet faster than they burn through the atmosphere, and with today’s larger, high-powered ...