Budweiser Rocket

Budweiser Rocket was a rocket car, as on the Rogers Dry Lake ( Edwards Air Force Base ) unofficially the sound barrier was broken for the first time.

In 1979, the Hollywood stuntman Stan Barrett tried with his " Budweiser Rocket Team" the magical Mach 1 crack. It was designed and built by William L. Fredrick from Chatsworth.

First attempts at the Bonneville Flats failed: The surface of the track proved to be too rough, the 48,000 hp rocket propulsion not developed the necessary thrust and Barrett reached with the vehicle only almost 1100 km / h Therefore, the team bought 6 solid rockets at the U.S. Air Force. Per record attempt such an auxiliary drive should be used in each case. When you first start with a solid-fuel rocket to the enormous acceleration Barret a blow in the neck and broke it a neck vertebra.

On 17 December 1979, the record attempt succeeded. Barrett reached with his Budweiser Rocket a speed of 1190 km / h, which meant supersonic speed at the low temperatures at the location. The record is not officially recognized by the FIA as the rocket car had only three wheels, the track back just put in a simple way and the accuracy of velocity measurement has been questioned.