Several dozen of these clustered together in a round that fires them in every direction as a starburst pattern once it gets to altitude.

They spray a flammable mixture out the back, perhaps even having the expulsion of this mixture propelling the rocket hydraulically like a water rocket. This mixture could be any flammable fluid perhaps mixed with suspended particles of various substances that burn with various colors when ignited.

When the fluid is almost expended, the shell ignites and lights the trail of fluid behind it. The trail of fluid then burns backwards to the center of the original launch point of all the shells. The effect would be a sort of "reverse explosion".

Not sure if I described it clearly. Picture a tracer round in reverse if that helps.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 02 2016

fuel-air bomb https://en.wikipedi.../Thermobaric_weapon
[Loris, Jan 03 2016]

I'd make certain to be miles away during product development. The required volumes of component staging would yield a lightning bolt effect.

(+)
-- normzone, Jan 03 2016


I like it.
The problem would be staging and choreography. Instead of a single launch platform and the whole sky as your canvas, you've opted for a stage the size of the grand canyon as your platform with a single target.

That sounds hard.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 03 2016


Would it be safer if it was not a fluid, but more of an explosive rope?
-- mofosyne, Jan 03 2016


As [bigsleep] says, having multiple ignition sites where outside ones have charges arranged to shoot back at centre column site would work to create the desired effect. Simplier to calculate and set up.
-- wjt, Jan 03 2016


I do like the rope idea.

I'd add something to that: infuse the rope not only with colorful incendiary stuff, but with blobs of the stuff at increments along the rope that would blow up in sequence as the rope burned.

So you'd shoot the round that would then unfurl the rope behind it, when it completely uncoiled the end of the rope attached to the round would be ignited.

The rope burns backwards towards the launch point hitting the regularly spaced mini fireworks every couple of feet along the path.

These mini fireworks could be progressively smaller, biggest at the point where the rope attaches to the round, smallest at the end of the rope at the center, the original point of release. The effect of this would be a large explosion followed by progressively smaller explosions that would REALLY give the impression that a large explosion is actually imploding or compacting back into it's point of origin.

Add different colors to further differentiate big outside explosions to small inside explosions and you'd get this "shrinking fireball" effect.

The explosions would have to be very short so as not to obscure the explosion sequences traveling back towards the core. Bright flashes rather than starbursts would probably suffice.

You could even have the bus from which the rounds all shot out from explode in spectacular fashion given a compression/explosion effect, like a sun igniting due to gravity or something.

What I'm picturing would be breathtaking.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 03 2016



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