Boomershoot reminiscing

Ry gives us video from one of our tests for Boomershoot 2003–Project Fireball. And contrary to what Ry says at the end of the video it did tell us what we wanted to know. I just hadn’t told Ry the entirety of my test plan prior to pulling the trigger. It went like this:

The first target used diesel instead of gasoline for the fireball fuel. It’s safer to work with and has more energy per unit volume. We thought maybe it would work. It didn’t ignite. The second target used “farm gas” which no road tax had been paid. It was cheaper than the gas we got at the Moscow gas station and was the second choice for a fuel. It worked and hence it was what we used. The third and I think fourth targets were both the 10% ethanol gas that we had purchased from the Moscow gas station and had done all our previous development with. We didn’t know if the 10% ethanol was a critical component of our success and needed to know so dozens of shooters wouldn’t be disappointed (they weren’t).

What Ry was concerned about was that once a successful ignition occurred all the following ones were guaranteed. True, but once one of them ignited that was the one we were going to use. Had I shot them in a different order then it would have invalidated the tests and Ry would have been correct. 

Share