Gas Thruster Controlled Drone

PSHHH PSHHHHHH, PSHHH! (That says “Great work, Tom!” in RCS)

So cool! The idea to convert the throttle values from a standard flight computer was really clever.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a flying submarine? No, it’s just one of tom’s creative inventions

2 words: pressure regulator. Tune the system for (pulling numbers from thin air), say, 40 psi. Install a pressure regulator and set it to the aforementioned 40 psi. Fill the bottles to the max pressure your compressor can output: 116 psi, IIRC. The regulator should regulate the 116 psi down to 40, giving you constant, predictable & repeatable thrust until the bottles drain to below 40 themselves. Problem might be finding a pressure regulator with a low enough mass to not overload the drone.

This guys playing kerbal space program in real life Edit: if you edit a comment you lose your heart.

"Let's just admire how little thrust this system actually produces." Love it.

I recall that years ago there was a small group (I've forgotten the name, unfortunately) in B.C. or Washington state that was sending soft drink water rockets over 1000 feet. They modified the bottles by wrapping carbon fibre around them using epoxy. These bottles were pressurized to as much as 2000 psi. Part of the success at reaching such heights was that they used dilute water/dish soap along with air for propulsion. They just poured it into the pressure vessel bottles before charging. As I recall, the most difficult problem was coming up with a reliable and safe way of setting them off. Another observation for this project is that you don't need a separate bottle for each nozzle, in fact it may be counterproductive to do so. Interconnecting the bottles would provide a more consistent pressure at each nozzle. Or add more bottles. Or make a custom bottle that utilizes all the dead space currently existing between the separate bottles.

This guy looks like a hybrid of Elon musk and Mcauley Culkin

You need to have a converging nozzle. Diverging nozzles like the rocket nozzle are for supersonic flow!

Whoever wrote the subtitles deserves a medal.

The pure joy on your face @ 12:14 when it's working is absolutely heart warming. I love seeing this level of human emotion. Especially during moments of triumph. Keep at it brother! You're awesome!

15:35 I love that sci-fi sounds this drone emits during liftoff attempts.

You need a converging nozzle cause you have a subsonic air flow passing through it. The higher the pressure in the tank the narrower has to be the nozzle and the more thrust you'll get out of it. This is true until you hit mach 1 in the nozzle narrower section, at that point you'll have to start increasing the nozzle section in order to further accelerate the air flow.

i love how he called one of his rockets "Thrusty McThrustface" :D I'm guessing this is a community effort? :D

When he flicked that self level switch on the controller it made me smile from ear to ear. That was really very cool to see working for the first time. This whole thing is amazing.

Love how encouraging your dad (I'm assuming that's your dad) is in so many of your videos... He has every reason to be incredibly proud.

Elon living a second Life as a de-aged clone. Man is rich enough

It would be great if you attached an LED at each corner connected to each valve. That way you could slow down the video and watch the valves operating 🤔😜

The joy of getting a project behave as expected is unparallel. Great work, this will help engineering students who are studying control systems and have no idea where it's going to be applied.

0:32 "Let's talk to someone that knows more than I do" Elon musk enters chat 🤣