J is for Jetpack, Popcorn Powered #atozchallenge

Ollie is always looking for new fuel sources for his motorized projects.  It’s very difficult to power rockets, racecars and jetpacks, not to mention lawn mowers and certain repurposed kitchen appliances without traditional flammable fuels.  Ollie’s mamma doesn’t much like constantly putting out fires on lawns, treehouses and kitchens.

One evening, while Ollie was popping popcorn for movie and marshmallow night he had an idea; what if you could harness the explosive power of popping kernels into a way to power a jetpack?  It was a simple matter of taking a popcorn popper, lots of butter and a small battery and then a more complicated matter of turning that into thrust force.  He was confident that several hours with his science books and maybe a cookbook or two, he could figure it out.

He took his supplies down to the workshop in the meadow confident that once his mamma saw him soaring over the meadow she wouldn’t mind the appropriation of her kitchen stuff.  He built two fuel canisters for butter and salt, connected them with various pipes and hoses to the popper that was mounted to the top.

On the first test the battery proved too small.  After several minutes there was the sound of one kernel popping and the smell of burning wires.  On the second test the butter melted and seeped out of the canister and it took Ollie a few hours to get out of the club house without slipping all over the place.  With the third test the canister was sealed, the battery was charged but there wasn’t enough popcorn.  What resulted was the sound of rapid-fire flatulence that could be heard several houses away.

With all the bugs sorted out of was time for the final test.  Ollie decided to test the new jetpack out in the field rather than the lab.  What could go wrong?

Tip:  Even though everything looks good on paper, one should never lose patience and make a proper test before strapping a somewhat combustible item to one’s person.

Ollie loaded the popper with the best Grade A popcorn he could find, dropped in the butter and salt, connected all the hoses and the new super charged battery and got into his flight suit.  Jet Flyer Oliver went out to Launch Pad A, a tree stump and put on his flight helmet.   It was  a clear blue day.  The sun was shining and the birds were singing and soon Ollie would be flying among them.  He took a breath and hit the switch.  He expected a lag time between heating the kernels and the slow popping of corn to get him to launch speed.  This would be a great day.

There was a click, a loud hiss and one loud explosion that blew the leaves off the trees, the feathers off the singing birds and engulfed the meadow in acres of Grade-A salted buttery popcorn.  Ollie was still on Launch Pad A, flight suit and helmet askew.  It was indeed a great day – for all the kids who came out and dove into the popcorn drifts and had popcorn fights.  All while Ollie figured out how he was going to tell his mamma.

 

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