Rocket car
A rocket car or rocket car is a land vehicle powered by a rocket engine . Rocket cars are only designed and built for the pursuit of speed records.
As early as 1928, Max Valier , Friedrich Wilhelm Sander and Fritz von Opel were experimenting with a car powered by powder rockets. On April 12, 1928 the first public trip of the Opel RAK1 took place; The driver was the Opel engineer and racing driver Kurt C. Volkhart . At the end of May 1928 Fritz von Opel reached a speed of 238 km / h in the RAK 2 on the Berlin AVUS .
Speed records with rocket cars
The international automobile association FIA , founded in Paris in 1904, issued uniform rules for speed records in 1914 . Since 1964, the FIA has allowed jet-powered vehicles to set land speed records. Several speed records were set with jet-powered vehicles that year.
The FIA rules for speed records state i.a. a. that the record car must have at least four wheels . In addition, two journeys are required: the same route there and back within an hour. The maximum speeds of the two journeys are then averaged. This value then goes into the official record books.
With the ever more powerful drives, a new goal came closer: Breaking the sound barrier with a land vehicle. William Fredrick, a Hollywood specialist in special effects, developed rocket vehicles in the 1970s, the most powerful of which was the Budweiser Rocket . First attempts at the American Air Force's Edwards Air Force Base fail. The 48,000-horsepower rocket engine of the car does not develop the necessary power and accelerates the vehicle only to almost 1,100 km / h. A solid rocket is mounted on the "Budweiser Rocket" for the additional thrust required . On December 17, 1979, the American stuntman Stan Barrett reached a speed of 1,190 kilometers per hour with this vehicle - the speed of sound . However, the record is not officially recognized: the rocket car only had three wheels and only covered the distance in one direction.
The current (officially recognized) world speed record of 1,227.985 km / h achieved by a car was achieved on October 15, 1997 by Andy Green with the ThrustSSC . With the North American Eagle vehicle , the American Ed Shadle would like to trump this record. Ed Shadle, like Andy Green in 1997, wants to carry out the record run in the Black Rock Desert in the US state of Nevada . The dried up salt lake lying in the desert is an almost flat surface.
Overview of some rocket cars
| date | driver | speed | Vehicle name | drive | place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 12, 1928 | Kurt C. Volkhart | 140 km / h | Opel RAK1 | 12 powder rockets | Opel Racecourse , Rüsselsheim (D) |
| May 1928 | Fritz from Opel | 238 km / h | Opel RAK2 | 24 powder rockets | AVUS , Berlin (D) |
| 1965 | Bobby Tatroe | 933.4 km / h (only one way) | Wingfoot Express II | 25 JATO missiles | Bonneville Salt Flats , USA |
| October 28, 1970 | Gary Gabelich | 1,001.45 km / h | Blue Flame | Liquid rocket engine, 58,000 hp | Bonneville Salt Flats, Wendover (Utah), USA |
| 17th December 1979 | Stan Barrett | 1,190 km / h (not officially recognized) | Budweiser Rocket | Rocket engine (48,000 hp) plus solid fuel rocket | Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA |
| in planning | ? | - | Bloodhound LSR | Rocket engine with approx. 130 kN thrust and a Eurojet EJ200 from the Eurofighter , which has an output of approx. 90 kN | Great Britain |
literature
- Michael Graf Wolff Metternich: German rocket vehicles on road, rail and ice. 1928 to 1931 . Winner, Lorch 1997
Web links
- Article in Spiegel Online about the Opel RAK 2
- Homepage of the North American Eagle
- Historical footage from 1928 in Spiegel Online about the Opel RAK 2
Individual evidence
- ^ Kai Klauder: First rocket car from Opel , auto-motor-und-sport.de of April 10, 2008
- ↑ Tom Hillenbrand: Rocket Car North American Eagle: America is looking for the super speeder. Spiegel Online , April 17, 2008, accessed October 26, 2011 .
- ↑ Bobby Tatroe & Wingfoot Express II , Internet portal "archive.is" ( Memento from September 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )