Our water bottle rocket design consists of low cost or recycled materials to ensure a cheap environmentally safe build.

The rocket consists of a 2L plastic bottle as the main body as it is structurally strong and easy to attach parts to. The nose cone is made from the top of a 2L bottle cut off and attach with tape, there is also a polystyrene cone on top of this to make the rocket more aerodynamic.

The polystyrene cone was a relatively low cost material, it is light weight so the rocket will travel further into the air as not as much thrust is needed and it also is a strong material to protect the top of the rocket when it falls back to the ground

The fins are made from multiple sheets of card stuck together and are attached to the main body of the water bottle using tape and super glue.

The nozzle is made using the valve of  a bike tyre and a cork from a bottle. We made a hole in the recycled cork and glued the bike valve into it. Once attached into the rocket the valve can be used to pump air into the main body of the rocket without letting the water inside spill out.

When a high enough pressure is reached inside the body of the rocket the cork will release from the neck of the bottle and the water will create thrust for the rocket.

After the rocket was built the rocket was filled with water up to a third of the bottle. The rocket was estimated to have reached heights of around 4-5 meters when tested.

The risks from testing this water rocket are that it has no parachute so the rocket will fall at a greater speed which could lead to injury if the rocket were to land on somebody. Another risk is that the rocket could fall over and fly off horizontally which increases the chance of it hitting someone.