Every year in northeastern Thailand, there is a rocket festival, where participants fire off homemade rockets—which you probably guessed—as part of the celebrations. This year, the festivities included “girandolas,” which are rockets made out of bamboo shape like pinwheels. They look amazing when you fire them into the air:
In order to fire these rockets, a central rod is placed in the middle, which is then filled with solid fuel. Nozzles are dotted around the rocket’s wheel-shape, so they will spin through the air once they’re launched. The fuel in the central rod is used to propel them into the sky until they eventually fall back down to Earth—some with a parachute, some with an explosion.
The festival includes a rocket contest, where communities come with homemade rockets to see which will fly the highest. It’s such an important celebration for Thailand that they broadcast it on TV, as you can see below:
For those of you who are curious about maybe, very carefully in a deserted area, making them at home so you can see just how wonderful they are in real life, you can check out this video, which will help you construct one:
You could also take a look at this pdf, which will take you through how to craft a girandola step by step.
Source Huffington Post, Gizmodo
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