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Spirit of America is the trademarked name used by Craig Breedlove for his land speed record-setting vehicles.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2023) |
Spirit of America is the trademarked name used by Craig Breedlove for his land speed record-setting vehicles.
Spirit of America was the first of the modern record breaking jet-propelled cars,[ citation needed ] built with a narrow streamlined fuselage, three-wheel chassis, and, most significantly, turbojet engine. Like most of the other competing vehicles, the engine was ex-military. The first Spirit had a General Electric J47 engine from an F-86 and was tested at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1962, where difficult handling resulted in failure.[ citation needed ] Before trying again, a new stabilizer and steerable front wheel were added.
Breedlove set his first record on August 5, 1963, at Bonneville, the first man to set an average speed of over 400 mph (640 km/h) during a land speed record attempt.[ citation needed ] (John Cobb had already exceeded this 400 mph mark in 1947, but had not sustained it as an average over both runs.)
At the time of Spirit of America's construction the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) rules for a land speed record required four wheels. Spirit's record was thus not recognised by the FIA. The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) did recognise it, however, classing Spirit as a motorcycle. Although this controversy has been widely reported since as being due to the use of a jet engine, FIA rules describing a qualifying car as being "driven through its wheels", the only issue raised seriously at the time was over the number of wheels, hence the FIM acceptance.
For a period there were thus two simultaneous land speed records, the 1947 Railton Mobil Special record remaining as the FIA four-wheel Class A record, which from July 1964 went to Campbell's Bluebird . Although Bluebird also used a "jet engine", it was a turboshaft that drove the wheels.
Both FIA & FIM records were broken in October 1964 by Tom Green and further extended by Art Arfons. Breedlove returned to Bonneville with Spirit and pushed the record over 500 mph (800 km/h), setting it at 526.277 mph (846.961 km/h) on October 15, a record that stood for almost two weeks. In setting the new record, at the end of his second run, the Spirit lost its braking parachutes, skidding for five miles (8 km), through a row of telephone poles and crashing into a brine pond at around 200 mph (320 km/h). Drenched but uninjured, Breedlove climbed out of the cockpit and declared, "And now for my next act I'm going to set myself on fire." [1] This feat earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest skid marks. Spirit was recovered and taken to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago as an exhibit. Spirit of America also left the ground for the longest distance ever recorded for a ground-based vehicle, when it hit rough ground at the end of the run.[ citation needed ]. The vehicle is no longer on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
A new Spirit was built over 1964–1965 to attempt to beat Arfons, dubbed Spirit of America – Sonic I a four-wheel design with a much higher rated GE J79 engine originally from an F-4 Phantom II, the same type as that used by Arfons' Green Monster. Another tit-for-tat with Arfons ended with Breedlove setting the record at 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) on November 15, 1965, a record that stood until 1970, broken by Gary Gabelich's The Blue Flame land speed record rocket car. The Sonic I vehicle is currently on display at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
After a lengthy break from world records Breedlove began work on a new Spirit in 1992, eventually named the Spirit of America Formula Shell LSRV. The vehicle is 44 ft 10 in long, 8 ft 4 in wide, and 5 ft 10 in high (13.67 m by 2.54 m by 1.78 m) and weighs 9,000 lb (4 t), construction is on a steel tube frame with an aluminium skin body. The engine is the same as in the second Spirit, a GE J79, but it is modified to burn unleaded gasoline and generates a maximum thrust of 22,650 lbf (100.8 kN).
The first run of the vehicle on October 28, 1996, in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada ended in a crash at around 675 mph (1,086 km/h). Returning in 1997 the vehicle badly damaged the engine on an early run. The British ThrustSSC twin-Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan-engined LSR car upped the record to 763 mph (1,228 km/h) on 15 October 1997, and became the first car to officially break the sound barrier. The re-engined Spirit could do no better than 676 mph (1088 km/h).
Breedlove sold the Spirit of America Formula Shell LSRV to Steve Fossett, holder of many sailing, ballooning and other aviation records, and the car was undergoing rebuilding in hopes of some preliminary shakedown runs in late September 2007 at Bonneville. However, Steve Fossett disappeared in early September 2007 while scouting for alternative land speed record venues in Nevada; his body and aircraft were later located in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. [2]
The Spirit of America Sonic Arrow, as it was rechristened by Fossett, was rolled out on the Black Rock Desert for a photo opportunity on October 15, 2007. The effort to run the car continued. [3]
The Beach Boys song "Spirit of America" is about Breedlove and the original Spirit of America.
The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), respective governing bodies for racing in automobiles and motorcycles, both bodies recognise as the absolute LSR whatever is the highest speed record achieved across any of their various categories. While the three-wheeled Spirit of America set an FIM-validated LSR in 1963, all subsequent LSRs are by vehicles in FIA Category C in either class JE or class RT.
Craig Breedlove was an American professional race car driver and a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first person in history to reach 500 mph (800 km/h), and 600 mph (970 km/h), using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss. Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record, set on 15 October 1997, and driven by Andy Green, when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) and it became the first and only land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier.
Thrust2 is a British-designed and -built jet-propelled car, which held the world land speed record from 4 October 1983 to 25 September 1997.
Gary Michael Gabelich was an American motorsport driver who set the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Land Speed Record (LSR) with the rocket car Blue Flame on October 23, 1970, on a dry lake bed at Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.
The Green Monster was the name of several vehicles built by Art Arfons and his half-brother Walt Arfons. These ranged from dragsters to a turbojet-powered car that briefly held the land speed record three times during 1964 and 1965.
Arthur Eugene Arfons was the world land speed record holder three times from 1964 to 1965 with his Green Monster series of jet-powered cars, after a series of Green Monster piston-engine and jet-engined dragsters. He subsequently went on to field a succession of Green Monster turbine-engined pulling tractors, before returning to land speed record racing. He was announced as a 2008 inductee in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame three days after his death.
The Wingfoot Express was Walt Arfons and Tom Green's jet-powered land speed record car, driven by Green to a record on October 2, 1964, after Walt suffered a heart attack just prior. The Express was powered by a Westinghouse J46 engine and hit the 413 mph record mark.
The Buckeye Bullet is a series of four experimental electric cars created by students from Ohio State University as a joint project with Venturi. The cars were designed to break the land speed record on the Bonneville Speedway, a salt flat just outside Wendover, Utah, United States. The team first achieved its goal in October 2004, at 271.737 mph (437.318 km/h) for the one mile world record, repeatedly increasing the record until setting a mile world record of 307.666 mph (495.140 km/h), in 2009, and a one kilometer world record of 341.264 mph (549.211 km/h), in 2016.
The Renault Étoile Filante was Renault's only attempt at both creating a gas turbine-powered car and setting a land speed record for such cars.
The JCB Dieselmax is a streamliner car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle.
The North American Eagle Project was a jet powered car that was intended to challenge the 763 mph (1,228 km/h) land speed record set by the ThrustSSC in 1997. The venture was a collaboration between Canadian and US engineers, pilots, and mechanics. In 2013, they had hoped to reach 800 mph (1,287 km/h), or Mach 1.058.
The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires two passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilometre while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/kilometre completed within two hours. These are special or modified motorcycles, distinct from the fastest production motorcycles. The first official FIM record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph (167.56 km/h). Since late 2010, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph (605.69 km/h).
The Bluebird-Proteus CN7 is a gas turbine-powered vehicle that was driven by Donald Campbell and achieved the world land speed record on Lake Eyre in Australia on 17 July 1964. The vehicle set the FIA world record for the flying mile at 403.1 mph (648.7 km/h).
Bloodhound LSR, formerly Bloodhound SSC, is a British land vehicle designed to travel at supersonic speeds with the intention of setting a new world land speed record. The arrow-shaped car, under development since 2008, is powered by a jet engine and will be fitted with an additional rocket engine. The initial goal is to exceed the current speed record of 763 mph (1,228 km/h), with the vehicle believed to be able to achieve up to 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h).
Tom Green worked with Walt Arfons to design and drive the Wingfoot Express, a jet-powered land speed record car. Green drove the car to a world record speed 413.20 mph (664.98 km/h) on October 2, 1964. Green's world record is often forgotten, as the mark was eclipsed three times in less than two weeks, including the first to break the 500 mph (800 km/h) threshold.
Don Vesco was an American businessman and motorcycle racer who held multiple motorcycle land-speed and wheel-driven land speed records. In his lifetime, he set 18 motorcycle and 6 automobile speed records.
An aero-engined car is an automobile powered by an engine designed for aircraft use. Most such cars have been built for racing, and many have attempted to set world land speed records. While the practice of fitting cars with aircraft engines predates World War I by a few years, it was most popular in the interwar period between the world wars when military-surplus aircraft engines were readily available and used to power numerous high-performance racing cars. Initially powered by piston aircraft engines, a number of post-World War II aero-engined cars have been powered by aviation turbine and jet engines instead. Piston-engined, turbine-engined, and jet-engined cars have all set world land speed records. There have also been some non-racing automotive applications for aircraft engines, including production vehicles such as the Tucker 48 and prototypes such as the Chrysler Turbine Car, Fiat Turbina, and General Motors Firebirds. In the late 20th century and into the 21st century, there has also been a revival of interest in piston-powered aero-engined racing cars.
Land speed racing is a form of motorsport.
The Spirit of Rett is a streamlined car designed to challenge the wheel-driven land speed record. On September 21, 2010 it made two speed runs piloted by Charlie Nearburg at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The first run averaged 417.0 mph (671.1 km/h) with an exit speed of 422.6 mph (680.1 km/h). The return run, made under more difficult track conditions, averaged 411.7 mph (662.6 km/h) with a top speed of 417.65 mph (672.14 km/h). The average speed of approximately 414.4 mph (666.9 km/h) exceeded the 45 year old Summers brothers’ Goldenrod record. The “Spirit of Rett” now has the fastest single engine car record in history.