JATO Rocket Car

Last updated

The account of the JATO Rocket Car was one of the original Darwin Awards winners: a man who supposedly met his death in a spectacular manner after mounting a JATO unit (a rocket engine used to help heavy aircraft to take off) onto an ordinary automobile. It was originally circulated as a forwarded email. [1]

Contents

In 1996, after numerous inquires, the Arizona Department of Public Safety issued a news release posted on their website concerning the story. It termed the story "an Arizona myth." [2]

The story was also debunked in 2003 on the pilot episode of MythBusters , titled "Jet Assisted Chevy".

Usenet posting

This is the text as it appears, possibly most frequently, in usenet repostings:

You all know about the Darwin Awards –it's the annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.

And this year's nominee is:

The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. the wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened.

It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off –actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!

The facts, as best could be determined, are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles [4.8 kilometers] from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within five seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 MPH [560 km/h], continuing at full power for an additional 20–25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles [4.0 km] (15–20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles [2.3 km] and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet [38 m], leaving a blackened crater 3 feet [0.9 m] deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.

History

The original Darwin Awards were fictitious. Both were contained[ clarification needed ] in a 1990 version of the JATO Rocket Car urban legend [ citation needed ] [3] posted to the rec.models.rockets Usenet newsgroup. When this urban legend was debunked, it was specifically pointed out that the mentioned Darwin Awards were fictitious. It contained a reference to the 1985 mention of a Vending Machine Tipover Darwin Award. It was Paul Vixie who wrote this introduction to the JATO urban legend that first included the term "Darwin Award". Vixie credits Charles Haynes with making the (informal) Darwin Award Nomination, but it was Vixie's specific wording, with the first sentence crediting Haynes stripped off, that was actually circulated and actually referred to the Darwin Awards as if they actually existed and were common knowledge, though the message was not widely circulated until it was reformatted.

It remained fairly dormant until 1995, when the message surfaced again [4] [ citation needed ] in rec.pyrotechnics with the email header stripped off the introduction, though the main story is still indented. Three days later [5] the introduction is fully integrated into the story and it appeared on rec.humor in a form that made it a truly infectious meme. Shortly after it was reposted in 1995 it quickly began to spread, being posted on Usenet 24 times within the next month. In 1996 the legend was further embellished with references to the year of manufacture of the car and G-Forces and to the form which was widely circulated via email (55% of all postings on usenet which included "JATO Rocket Darwin Award impala" also included "g-forces". [6]

Cult of the Dead Cow, a hacker group and ezine, published an extensive elaboration in 1998 that claims to explain how the story came into being, describing the most common details of the Rocket Car legend. Four males under 25 engaged in scouting, welding, drinking, and Rube Goldberg engineering to build a rocket rail car after they happened upon JATOs in a junk pile. Supposed author CarInTheCliff also describes the car's only test plus the elements he has added while discouraging repeats by example. In this account it is also claimed that the story had first circulated long before 1990. [7]

The Darwin Awards meme was also spread by Wendy Northcutt, who collected the Darwin Awards on a public website in 1993, and circulated new stories in a regular newsletter. [8]

The MythBusters investigation

To test the story –the very first myth they tackled – Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, with help from honorary MythBuster Erik Gates, procured a 1966 Chevrolet Impala, and after they were unable to obtain actual JATOs, they substituted three model rockets in succession to produce an equivalent amount of thrust (3,000 horsepower [2,200 kW] for 15 seconds). They also installed a rocket rack and reinforced the car so that the rockets would not tear off the roof, and even made use of a hydraulic system that the previous owner had installed on the car to lower the front of the car and make it more aerodynamic. However, when tested in the Mojave Desert, the car did not go anywhere near the 300 miles per hour (480 km/h) reported in the original story, and failed to become airborne.[ citation needed ]

The program has revisited the story twice, in 2007's "Supersized Myths" (the rockets exploded on the ramp) and their 10th Anniversary episode "JATO Rocket Car: Mission Accomplished?". The 12 motors were built by John Newman, Rick Maschek, and others with one motor first being static tested, successfully, at the FAR site (Friends of Amateur Rocketry) to avoid another explosion. On the two cars used, the motors were stacked vertically to keep the cars going straight in the event one or more of the motors did not ignite. The car was weighted towards the front in an attempt to improve its aerodynamic stability but no attempt was made to ensure the thrust vector of the rocket pack was being applied through the center of gravity (CG) of the car. The thrust vector proved to be far too high above the CG causing the car to immediately nosedive as it left the ramp and smash into the ground. The still firing motors propelled the car up into the air a second time where it did a rotation until smashing into the ground.

Dodge Coronet TV ad

To advertise the stopping power (rather than speed) of the 1958 Dodge Coronet's 'total contact' brakes, a JATO bottle was fitted to a Coronet and it was driven at speed across the El Mirage dry lake. This commercial was broadcast during the Dodge-sponsored Lawrence Welk Show . [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Darwin Awards are a rhetorical tongue-in-cheek honor that originated in Usenet newsgroup discussions around 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by selecting themselves out of the gene pool by dying or becoming sterilized by their own actions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban legend</span> Form of modern folklore

Urban legends is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevrolet</span> American automobile division of General Motors

Chevrolet, colloquially referred to as Chevy, is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JATO</span> Type of aircraft assisted take-off

JATO is a type of assisted take-off for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets. The term JATO is used interchangeably with the term RATO, for rocket-assisted take-off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscle car</span> High-performance car

A muscle car is an American-made two-door sports coupe with a powerful engine, generally designed for high-performance driving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevrolet Impala</span> American full-size car

The Chevrolet Impala is a full-size car that was built by Chevrolet for model years 1958 to 1985, 1994 to 1996, and 2000 to 2020. The Impala was Chevrolet's popular flagship passenger car and was among the better-selling American-made automobiles in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevrolet Biscayne</span> Full-size sedan produced by Chevrolet

The Chevrolet Biscayne was a series of full-size cars produced by the American manufacturer General Motors through its Chevrolet division between 1958 and 1975. Named after a show car displayed at the 1955 General Motors Motorama, the Biscayne was the least expensive model in the Chevrolet full-size car range. The absence of most exterior and fancy interior trimmings remained through the life of the series, as the slightly costlier Chevrolet Bel Air offered more interior and exterior features at a price significantly lower than the top-of-the-line Impala and Caprice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster</span> Solid propellant rocket used to launch the Space Shuttle orbiter

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was the first solid-propellant rocket to be used for primary propulsion on a vehicle used for human spaceflight. A pair of these provided 85% of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff and for the first two minutes of ascent. After burnout, they were jettisoned and parachuted into the Atlantic Ocean where they were recovered, examined, refurbished, and reused.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Templeton</span> Canadian businessman

Brad Templeton is a Canadian software developer, internet entrepreneur, online community pioneer, publisher of news, comedy, science fiction and e-books, writer, photographer, civil rights advocate, futurist, public speaker, educator and self-driving car consultant. He graduated from the University of Waterloo.

Walter Charles Arfons was the half brother of Art Arfons, his former partner in drag racing, and his competitor in jet-powered land speed record racing. Along with Art, he was a pioneer in the use of aircraft jet engines for these types of competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevrolet 9C1</span> Code for police cars manufactured by Chevrolet

9C1 is a production code used by Chevrolet to designate a vehicle intended for use as a police car or car-based emergency vehicle. 9C1-designated vehicles are marketed under the Police Pursuit Vehicle or Police Patrol Vehicle (PPV) nameplate. The 9C1 package is intended to compete with the Ford Police Interceptor and Stellantis's Dodge Charger Pursuit and Dodge Durango Pursuit.

James Hart Wyld was an American engineer and rocket scientist.

James Davis Nicoll is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club. As a Usenet personality, Nicoll is known for writing a widely quoted epigram on the English language, as well as for his accounts of suffering a high number of accidents, which he has narrated over the years in Usenet groups like rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. He is now a blogger on Dreamwidth and Facebook, and an occasional columnist on Tor.com. In 2014, he started his website, jamesdavisnicoll.com, dedicated to his book reviews of works old and new; and later added Young People Read Old SFF, where his panel of younger readers read pre-1980 science fiction and fantasy, and Nicoll and his collaborators report on the younger readers' reactions.

<i>The Darwin Awards</i> (film) 2006 American film

The Darwin Awards is a 2006 American adventure comedy film based on the website of the same name written and directed by Finn Taylor, the film premiered January 25, 2006, at the Sundance Film Festival. The film features Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, David Arquette, Juliette Lewis, Wilmer Valderrama, Chris Penn, Julianna Margulies, Robin Tunney, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Brad Hunt, Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Metallica. This was Chris Penn's last movie before his death on January 24, 2006, the day before the film's premiere. The film includes several full and partial re-enactments of "Darwin Awards", the earliest of which were fictitious, most notably the debunked JATO Rocket Car story.

rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated is a moderated Usenet newsgroup that focuses on the science fiction television series Babylon 5 and the works of writer J. Michael Straczynski. It was spun off from its un-moderated version, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, in 1996. The newsgroup counts Straczynski as a frequent contributor, and was among the first internet-based forums where fans interacted directly with a 'showrunner'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rocket car</span> Land vehicle propelled by a rocket engine

A rocket car is a land vehicle propelled by a rocket engine. A rocket dragster is a rocket car used for competing in drag racing, and this type holds the unofficial world record for the 1/4 mile.

A Usenet personality was a particular kind of Internet celebrity, being an individual who gained a certain level of notoriety from posting on Usenet, a global network of computer users with a vast array of topics for discussion. The platform is usually anonymous, although users can get celebrity status, usually by being deemed different from other posters in some way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Usenet</span> Worldwide computer-based distributed discussion system

Usenet, USENET, or, "in full", User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it was established in 1980. Users read and post messages to one or more topic categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles a bulletin board system (BBS) in many respects and is the precursor to the Internet forums that have become widely used. Discussions are threaded, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.

Paul Stender AKA "Jet Car Paul" is best known for designing, building, and driving some of the most extreme and fastest Jet/Turbine Engine powered land vehicles in the world.

References

  1. ↑ Treat, Wesley (2007). Weird Arizona : your travel guide to Arizona's local legends and best kept secrets. Mark Moran, Mark Sceurman. New York, NY.: Sterling Pub. Co. ISBN   978-1-4027-3938-5. OCLC   173400034.
  2. ↑ Mikkelson, Barbara (November 12, 2006). "Carmageddon". Snopes . Retrieved August 14, 2012.
  3. ↑ Paul Hardy (1 December 1990). "turbo-charged auto". Newsgroup:  rec.models.rockets. Usenet:   PH.90Nov30215209@ama-1.ama.caltech.edu.
  4. ↑ Francis A. Ney Jr. (16 May 1995). "Kids: don't try this at home...". Usenet:   znr800637017k@Digex.
  5. ↑ John Casten (19 May 1995). "this year's Darwin award". Newsgroup:  rec.humor. Usenet:   casten-1905951029560001@138.202.3.86.
  6. ↑ Butler RN (June 14, 1996). "Rocket Chevy". Newsgroup:  alt.fan.cecil-adams. Usenet:   4pt726$qug@newsbf02.news.aol.com.
  7. ↑ "cDc paramedia: texXxt #363". cultdeadcow.com. Archived from the original on 2004-09-04.
  8. ↑ Northcutt, Wendy (2000). The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action. New York: Dutton. ISBN   0525945725. OCLC   61058561.
  9. ↑ Dodge presents The Lawrence Welk Show on YouTube, segment begins at 30:00
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.