FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for April 24, 2020

fare thee well, boys’ kite

Rocket engines are toys? Who knew!

A fiery engine with a paper construct, what could go wrong?

or they could wait for some wind

I’ve heard of stories about the floating Chinese lanterns starting fires, but this looks much, much worse.

More like “blow right through that line out into the far reaches of the unknown”, but yes, Jason, you are.

Years ago, during my dabbling with model rocketry, I had constructed a kit model which was made of lighter than usual materials. Regrettably, I didn’t do an absolutely correct job. The good news was that the rocket took off. The bad news is that, due to my inept construction, the cardboard skin of the rocket caught fire from the exhaust, and the plastic nose cone was the only part I managed to recover.

With the eye of experience I can see the same fate for the kite. The boys are using a sledgehammer to swat a fly.

About to straddle the line between genius and idiocy? Oh, Jason, that line is very far away now.

For those of us who thought all the hair brained ideas originated with Jason, take a look at panel 2.

It is a fine fine line.

Boy, I hope the insurance covers that.

If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing.

Sometimes it is difficult to disengage the engineer part of my brain. The rockets remind me of a setup we have in town. There are two traffic lights. When one turns green the next light remains green for three seconds. I wonder what it would take to be able to make that light.

So I did the math. Given the distance, I would have to accelerate at 3.2 G’s and I would go through the light at 122 mph. In other words, my 1994 Dodge Dakota isn’t going to make it. I’ll have to trade it in for a rocket sled.

Straddle the line? They’ve gone WAY over the line.