Rocket Engine Accident

Saturday, March 9 - Thursday, March 14 1985

On March 10th, 1985 I landed in the emergency room as a result of a rocket experiment gone wrong. The engines were made by my friend Luke, and consisted of polyurethane + ammonium perchlorate fuel in pipe casings. We first tried to ignite the engines on March 9th; the first batch of pictures are all from that day. It turned out that the battery in the igniter was too low to function properly. We returned the following day with a fresh battery. On that day, as I connected the igniter to the first engine, it malfunctioned and ignited the engine prematurely, and the engine immediately exploded, injuring my hands and arm. There are no pictures from that day. The second batch of pictures are from a few days after the accident.
Further details are in this more verbose account written three years after the accident.


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Engines
Engines
{Rocket engines, [...]}

Engine Cores
Engine Cores
{Rocket engines [...]}

Scott Starting Timer
Scott Starting Timer
{The top of the [...]}

Luke Listening
Luke Listening
{Luke is [...]}

Scott & Luke Running
Scott & Luke Running
{The timer has [...]}


Bandaged Arms
Bandaged Arms
{4 days after the [...]}

Bent Keys
Bent Keys
{The keys & [...]}

Keys & Knife
Keys & Knife

Hole in Pants
Hole in Pants
{The hole left in [...]}


Shrapnel
Shrapnel
{Removed from my [...]}

   
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All images copyright © 1985 John H. DuBois III
This gallery created on Thursday, March 10, 2005 • 10 of 10 images displayed