| Author | Message | ||
     Rocketman |
15th October 1997 Average speed 763mph  The worlds first supersonic land speed record.  Rocket | ||
| Blake |
That one is likely going to stand for a very long time. After breaking the sound barrier, what is left to motivate improving the record? No one really remembers the 2nd man to run a sub 4-minute mile, do they? Hey maybe they could figure a way to make it into a motorcycle.  | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Boy, sure doesn't seem like 10 years ago. Anyone have any footage of the run? | ||
| Spike |
http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Videos/Videos.h tml I always liked this shot:  | ||
| Slaughter |
Just because Ryan broke the 4 minute mile didn't mean everybody stopped running did it? LSR is an amazing thing at that level... at ANY level actually! Thrust did a great piece of work. Who knows how Breedlove would have done if he hadn't finished sliding on his side - but Thrust had it all together | ||
| Court |
I think Cunningham was the 1st 4 minute and "The Kansas Comet" was the first high schooler (in his Jr year) and the first in the Olympics. I remember watching Jim train when I was a kid. The had a station wagon with the top cut out and a fellow stood in the opening with a long boom holding a contraption with hoses that went to a breathing mask that provided the same level of Oxygen as in Mexico City. That was always the amazing part to me that he did it at the altitude. Cool stuff. . . The Thrust thing was kinda cool. I had a friend Craig Breedlove who was kinda in the hunt for that. I visited his place in CA to see the car (being engineered and built by mostly Brits by the way) and it was awesome. That's seriously fast. | ||
| Blake |
Steve, Point taken, but maybe the difference is that amateur running competition doesn't require the investment of fortunes, literally millions of dollars, just to get to the starting line. How much did the Thrust team spend? A quick google revealed this potential challenger to the Thrust SSC record. Note numbers 9 and 27. Number 23 is very interesting too. First land vehicle to break the sound barrier wasn't the Thrust SSC. I didn't know that. | ||
| Rocketman |
If you ever get to see the documentary Thrust SSC team made during their record attempt, you'd see they were very very fortunate to get the record after several weeks of trying. What was an extremely well prepared and equipped effort, it was no easy task judging by the documentary. They were all but out of money, time, and the weather window was closing in, giving them perhaps just one more day had they not broke the record on the 15th. Worse still, the something around 50 odd 500 - 700+ mph runs were taking their toll on the car. Body panels were in constant need of repair and riveting on a run by run basis. Parachutes were another issue as they were destroying them at an alarming rate. These you would think would be the simplest of things to cope with. Not so. Even their pop rivet supply had been exhausted to the point of having to drill fresh holes, yet less of them, and almost any body panel failure could have brought the project to an instant end, or worse, complete disaster. Great documentary if you ever get chance. Stan Barrett's achievement aside, the USAF had gone faster across the earths surface with a rocket-propelled sled running on a railed track. The sled had carried people at supersonic speeds but the fastest speed achieved in 1959 was an unmanned run peaking at a whopping 3090mph. I would like to have been on that one! Rocket | ||
| Slaughter |
You can't even count rocket sleds. They aren't wheeled vehicles - they're on runners/skids and the highest speeds ever attained unmanned were done through a plastic tunnel of inert gas that shredded as the sled ran through. | ||
| Rocketman |
That's not the point. They are still the fastest vehicles travelled on the earths surface, and though not 3000mph ones, some were manned. It's not just about speed. It's about human endeavour and human achievement. Rocket | ||
| Slaughter |
Rocket - No argument there. In a previous life, we actually met the late Dr. Stapp at work. He is the famous doctor who voluntarily allowed himself to be strapped into the sled for the physiological testing being done. Those pics you see of his cheeks flapping with the blindfold on are memorable. Don't know anybody who hasn't seen those pics or video. They were doing crazy sh!t back in the day. | ||
| Slaughter |
Out at China Lake, they were experimenting with a camera-carrying/transmitting 120mm howitzer shell. The thought was that you would shoot it over the forward areas and as it spun, it'd transmit images. Problem was, they couldn't recover the prototypes during development. They rigged up a "catchers mitt" in the back of the sled, lit the rocket sled and then fired the cannon into the back of it, allowing the projectile to be "caught" in the rocket sled. Made for some cool video. That test track is still in operation. Known as SNORT - Supersonic Naval Ordnance Research Track. (google it) | ||
| Court |
>>>>They were doing crazy sh!t back in the day. Dats a Fack Jack! My Uncle is an Astronaut and Chief Space Physician for NASA and a private consultant to to MIR and the international space station. These days he has offices in Moscow and Houston but his funnest days were in the very early, sub-orbital, time when he was doing decertify experiments to understand what pilots and Astronauts could and could not endure. They did some really wild stuff and unofficially did even wilder stuff. Some really smart and curious folks! | ||
| Slaughter |
Dr. Stapp at 40-ish times the force of gravity - in DECELERATION  He was also a volunteer "guinea pig" doing high altitude endurance at altitudes above 45,000 feet. Quite a character. | ||
| Rocketman |
Jeez Steve, what shit are you involved in! Thanks for the SNORT. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
'Right Stuff' comes to mind. The book was better than the movie. Especially if you'd read it first. A pilot friend of mine, long before he became a pilot, asked what he might read on the plane for his first visit to the US. This was way back in the early 80's. I gave him a copy of the Right Stuff. When he got back from the States he told me he'd visited the Smithsonian Museum if memory serves, and lots of stuff in the book was right there in front of him. My friend flies over Afghanistan this year / next year doing some covert stuff for the military. I wonder if I influenced his career since he use to sell motorcycles for a living when I gave him that book, lol. Rocket | ||
| Court |
One of my favorite stories was when my Grandmother, as her health was failing in her last years, was living with my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Craig. Since the days of the Redstone Rockets and Friendship 7 Sandy and Craig have always thrown kind of an unofficial bash for all the Astronauts that's their version of a high school reunion. Many of these guys and gals are former test pilots, all are "spirited" in many ways. Grandma was born in 1899 and clearly remembered, as a child, when flight was the folly of fools. Barnstormers would come through rural Nebraska to showcase the Wright brothers new invention and eventually neighbor Amelia Earhart from nearby Atchison, KS would be one of the key players in advancing the science. . . but when Grandma was young well. . . flying was something you didn't see. So all the folks are gathered in back at tables on the patio around the pool and Sandra goes to Grandma's room and tells her "Mom, come out and eat dinner with us". Later, in 1988, Grandma is telling me the story. She, up until the day she died, was pretty sharp and to here her, with her personal experience, tell the story was amazing. She was the ON:Y persona at the table who had NOT walked on the moon! I've used this as an example in some classes and talks I do about "rate of change". We are living in amazing times. | ||
| Rocketman |
Great stuff. Just down the street from the Pepper's residence, maybe 50 or more houses away, there's a plaque on the wall celebrating a previous tenant - pioneering aviator Amy Johnson. She could have been an astronaut, and possibly walked on the moon had she been born a generation later. Amy Johnson Rocket | ||
| Blake |
Speaking of people who've pushed the envelope of flight: My wife, the farm girl from Palmer, Texas, was very enamored as a youngster with the idea of flight. Even then in her adolescence she was a true "git'er done" kinda gal. So she came up with a plan to achieve flight, and followed through with it. She caught two chickens, coaxed them to sleep--put their heads under wing--and climbed atop the chicken coup. With a chicken in each hand, she roused the birds awake and leapt into the void. Always prepared for any contingency, she had shrewdly reasoned that if her altitude climbed too high, she could simply release one of the chickens. After that first trial flight, none of the chickens would let her near them. But to this day I think she wonders "maybe if I could get four chickens..." So you can see one of the reasons why I love that gal so much. The combination of tom-boy daredevil and prom-queen is hard to beat, and I have the bruises to prove it.  (Message edited by Blake on October 28, 2007) | ||
| Rocketman |
Pushing the envelope is what LSR is all about. What makes it great is the achievement of just getting there. You don't have to break a record to push an envelope. I don't know if I'll get the V8 Streetfighter to Bonneville next year, but if I don't I won't feel like I've not pushed the envelope. In fact, a greater disappointment to me has already happened this past month. Some dirty low life bastard has been in my workshop during the course of a working day, and after six years of being on there, this scum bag has stolen the Stars n Stripes valve caps off my Buell that Jack Van Voast gave me off his S1 after I achieved the 130 Club at Bonneville on it. These tiny things worth but a few dollars were to me a huge physical sign of me pushing the envelope. If and when I find out who the thief was I hope for their sake I don't lose my temper. Human achievement can be measured in many ways. I am proud to have made Bonneville. I had been fascinated by the place since Blue Flame days, when I was about 10 years old. I want my valve caps back just as much as I hanker to be back at Bonneville one day. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
Ok, back to pushing the envelope. The Wright brothers are credited with the first manned flight, but it's actually powered manned flight they achieved first. A Yorkshire man, George Cayley was the first man to fly a winged machine. Wikipedia has some very interesting commentary on him. I hadn't realised this years reading of his school books revealed new information about him. Unbelievable stuff. I like Cayley's flight because it happened about 50 miles from my home. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
Here's another British LSR effort Richard Brown's 365MPH rocket bike at Bonneville. Watch those mile markers disappear! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9VePfOXn3o Rocket | ||
| Spdkls |
any word of the F1 team trying to set an open wheel record. i believe they are trying for 250. pretty good for a 2.5l v8. | ||
| Firemanjim |
Where are they trying to set it? Might find info here---www.landracing.com a sort of clearinghouse for all sorts of landspeed racing info. | ||
| Rocketman |
I've not heard about this either? Rocket | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
Rocket cars are amazing, but I'm surprised none of you have mentioned the Summers Bros. long, long held WHEEL driven record.... What Makes Summers Run? The Summer Brothers' Goldenrod Published in the Hot Rod Magazine, April 1966, Written by: Eric Rickman Here is the answer - The "inside" story of the Summers Brothers' streamliner After breaking the World Land Speed Record for wheel driven vehicles on their first time out, there are no further fields for the Summers Brothers and the aptly named, quarter million dollar Goldenrod streamliner to conquer. This, of course is unlike jet car competition. Goldenrod is a beautifully shaped tiny projectile built around four, fuel injected Chrysler Hemi engines set in a row. Total combined output of these engines is somewhere in the region of 2400 hp, the engines delivering power to two Spicer Aluminium 5 speed gearboxes linked by a specially fabricated Hurst shifting mechanism. Realising that competition is the life blood of the rodding sport, hot rodders Bob and Bill have thrown down the gauntlet in the traditional style and challenged Donald Campbell with his 5 million dollar "Bluebird" to come back and have a go at the "books." The new record of 409.344 mph (two way average in the mile) was achieved on a weather shortened course, and unknown till now, one official practice run was clocked at 425-plus mph. An even more amazing fact is that at no time was the car running in high gear. All runs, including the record and blazing 425 run, were made in 4th gear, due to the abbreviated course. So a word to the wise, Donald: "You'd better stuff a bunch of strong feathers in that 'Bluebird' before you bring it back. When the 'Goldenrod' gets into high gear on the long course, it's going to be hard to catch." In light of their accomplishments, we herewith present some of the mechanical achievements of the self-taught car builder and engineering genius Bob Summers, and brother Bill.  | ||
| Scott_in_nh |
Rocket cars are amazing, but I'm surprised none of you have mentioned the Summers Bros. long, long held WHEEL driven record....  Bob and Bill Summers are shown above in 1965 with their four-engine Golden Rod, which still holds the unblown record of 409.695 mph. Al Teague’s 409-plus-mph record remains the high-water mark for blown engines. http://www.speedace.info/goldenrod.htm} |
