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MythBusters Episode 40: "Confederate Rocket"

4 Comments

Air Date: October 26, 2005

During the American Civil War, the Confederacy built and launched a two stage rocket 120 miles from Richmond, Virginia to Washington D.C.

busted

While the MythBusters were able to construct and launch a hybrid rocket in under two days using only properties available to Civil War-era engineers, the rocket was not two stage, as per the myth and only travelled an estimated 500 yards. Adam and Jamie agreed that the myth would be impossible with the technology available during the civil war.

(A spin-off of this myth was confirmed in episode 51 and again in episode 64: A hybrid rocket can be propelled with salami.)

4 Comments

  1. Ray:

    The reason the salami didn’t get the distance is because of the dip in the jetstream, and the crackers that the fats give off, rather than a clean burn. To fix this next time, we need to have the salami, dip and crackers all together. Maybe with an olive or two.

    June 26, 2007 at 9:56 AM
  2. Terrance Litschel:

    In the original episode of this myth, Adam and Jamie forgot to put some sort of stabalizers on their original confederate rocket. With that, the Rocket could have gone more than 500 yards. I probably have gone about 3-5 miles. I noticed that as their original rocket reached it’s peak, it’s tail end dipped, then the nose went down. after that, it was a steep dive to the earth. with the stabalizers, the dip would not have happened. I want to see them redo this myth, with the halley gyro stabalizers on thier large rocket, just to see how far it could actually go.

    July 5, 2007 at 1:08 AM
  3. anthony:

    I have to tell you that I am supper impressed with the civil war rocket it worked better then I would have ever thought I mean wow you achieved more in three days than north Korea has in many years thumbs up to you.

    PS: I think Kim Jong-il want to hire yawl to consultants to his weapons department

    September 4, 2007 at 3:35 PM
  4. Shaun:

    I dont think halley stabalizers or infact any type of not complete trash stabilizer could have been fitted onto the rocket and still perserved the civil war era technology. Remember technology doesnt have to be electronic, it just has to involve deesign and the evolution there of.

    August 27, 2008 at 12:22 AM

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