Rocket car
Rocket Car is the name for a driven with a rocket engine land vehicle. Rocket cars are designed and built to achieve speed records.
In 1928, experimented Max Valier, Friedrich Wilhelm Sander and Fritz von Opel together on a driven powder rocket car. On April 12, 1928, the first public run of the Opel RAK 1 was held. The end of May -1928 Fritz von Opel in RAK 2 on the AVUS in Berlin a maximum speed of 228 km / h
Speed records with rocket car
Founded in Paris in 1904 International Automobile Federation FIA has adopted 1914 uniform rules for speed records. Since 1964, the FIA allowed jet-powered vehicles to achieve land speed records. This year, several speed records were obtained with jet-powered vehicles.
The rules of the FIA speed records stating inter alia that the record car must have at least four wheels. In addition, two trips are required: the same route there and back within an hour. Then, the maximum speed of the two runs are averaged. This value is then included in the official record books.
With the ever-increasing drives, a new target was approaching: the breaking of the sound barrier with a land vehicle. A group led by American stuntman Stan Barrett began to develop in the 1970s, the Budweiser Rocket; Goal: the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. First attempts fail at Edwards Air Force Base, the U.S. Air Force. The 48,000 hp rocket engine of the car does not develop the necessary strength and accelerates the vehicle only to almost 1,100 km / h For the additionally required thrust a solid-fuel rocket to the " Budweiser Rocket" is mounted. On 17 December 1979 Barrett achieved with this vehicle at a speed of 1,190 kilometers per hour - the speed of sound. The record is not officially recognized: The rocket car had only three wheels and completed the course only in a simple direction.
The current generated by a car ( officially recognized ) world speed record of 1227.985 km / h was reached on 15 October 1997 by Andy Green with the ThrustSSC. With the car "North American Eagle " of Americans Ed Shadle would outdo this record. Ed Shadle wants, as well as Andy Green in 1997, perform the record-breaking run in the Black Rock Desert in the U.S. state of Nevada. The lying in the desert dried up salt lake is a nearly flat surface.