Spirit Of America Sonic Arrow (Formula Shell LSRV) - Craig Breedlove's Supersonic Challenger

in October 1990 Craig Breedlove bought two j79 jet engines from a dealer in Utah returning home via Bonneville he mentioned to Richard Noble that he was building a new land speed record car to not only break Nobles long-standing 633 miles per hour record but to comprehensively smash it and set the first official supersonic record the first man to set 400 500 and 600 miles per hour records few would have bet against Breedlove succeeding however noble hatched a plan to defend his record with a new car thrust SSC the race to set the first supersonic world land speed record was on Breedlove's car was christened spirit of America sonic arrow although headline sponsorship from shell meant it was also known as formula shell LS RV or land speed record vehicle Breedlove had put two million dollars of his own money into starting the project but despite this there was little funding available for CFD analysis or supersonic testing with models on rocket sleds as the thrust project would do furthermore unconvinced of the value of Windtunnel testing when applied to high-speed land vehicles Breedlove declared the situation is different with a car to take all of that data and rely on it as gospel truth has some dangers if you get bad data it's worse than no data in reality the car can confirm the testing procedure but the testing procedure cannot confirm the car and so spirit of America's sonic aero was designed largely by I with Breedlove relying on his experience and gut feeling to refine the design in Rio Vista northern California he bought a derelict tractor dealership and turned it into a workshop in which to build his new car he added living quarters on site as always Breedlove would eat sleep and breathe his project into life sonic arrow stood 44 feet 10 inches long 8 feet 4 inches wide and 5 feet 10 inches high or thirteen point seven meters by 2.5 meters by 1.8 meters built on a chromoly steel tube space frame the fuselage was skinned with aluminium carbon fiber and Kevlar the cockpit in the nose of the car was built as a survival cell designed to be virtually indestructible in the event of a crash a single j79 turbojet engine with four stage afterburner provided twenty two thousand six hundred and fifty pounds of thrust the equivalent of forty-eight thousand horsepower at the target speed of 800 miles per hour in deference to the project's prime sponsor shell the engine was modified to run on premium unleaded gasoline sonic arrows solid aluminium wheels would be skinned with wound graphite and Kevlar tires to help maintain their integrity at supersonic speeds at first glance the car looked like a three wheeler but it actually ran on three closely spaced wheels at the front and two out rig wheels at the rear making it a five wheeled jet car the braking system was also unique with no wheel brakes Sonic arrow used parachutes to slow the car from eight hundred miles per hour before slowing to a stop using what Breedlove referred to as his Fred Flintstone brake a hydraulics key brake under the car which would contact the ground by late 1994 work on sonic Aero is progressing well however despite its late start Nobel's thrust SSC project was catching up fast Breedlove suffered setbacks through 1995 and early 96 as he struggled with funding a failed marriage and a lawsuit when one of his precious j79 engines was ruined by a contractor nevertheless by mid-september 1996 Breedlove was back at Bonneville for initial runs with his new car sonic arrow at Bonneville was really all about publicity and sponsorship Breedlove never intended to set any records there as he felt the surface wasn't suitable he would use the iconic site of his 1960s land speed triumphs to shape down the car before moving to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for an attempt on Nobles record despite wet weather at Bonneville by the end of September sonic arrow had reached 375 miles per hour at the Black Rock Desert however legal objections from an environmentalist group delayed running until the second week of October with seasonal storms on their way there was no time to lose Breedlove's plan was to break Nobles 633 miles per hour record and then to run the car unmanned beyond 700 miles per hour under remote control to prove its transonic capabilities before going for the supersonic record in 1997 initial runs on the desert were delayed by the weather but by October the 27th sonic Aero had run at 563 miles per hour everything was ready for a record attempt the next day on October the 28th four miles from the start of the measured mile sonic aero was prepared the wind speed on the course was starting to rise but where the car stood waiting it was below the critical five knot safety limit from further down the course the spotter aircraft reported in we've got one five knots down here limited radio systems meant that only Breedlove himself heard the report as the engine was started he interpreted 1:5 as a crosswind of 1.5 knots had he realized that the wind speed was actually 15 knots he wouldn't have started the run with Breedlove's foot hard down sonic arrow left from naught to 200 miles per hour in just 4 seconds Breedlove could see that his car was accelerating so quickly that he'd be likely running at over 800 miles per hour by the time he reached the measured mile in completely unknown speed territory showing incredible presence of mind he lifted to slow the car until he saw the timing marker accelerating again he entered the measured mile traveling at 675 miles per hour sonic arrow was suddenly pitched onto its side by a strong crosswind completely out of control Breedlove was a passenger as his car swept around in a massive arc sliding across the desert before eventually righting itself pulling hard on the steering wheel at 500 miles per hour Breedlove again lifted one of sonic arrows rear outboard wheels off the ground as he fought to avoid hitting a Motorhome parked on the desert near the spectator area before finally releasing the chute to slow the car at a hundred miles per hour Breedlove used the ski break and rolled to a stop two miles off course facing back the way he had come at 59 years old he had survived the world's fastest car crash and executed the world's fastest u-turn as his team arrived on the scene he examined the damage to the car and said looks like I've got some work to do you guys want to go to lunch back in Rio Vista it was clear that sonic arrow was badly damaged the left side of the car was battered and the chassis was bent aerodynamic changes intended to reduce the risk of a repeat would be costly not all the news was bad though incredibly the j79 engine had survived despite swallowing vast quantities of the desert data from the car on the last run showed that sonic arrow was still accelerating strongly at 675 miles per hour when the crash occurred the car clearly had plenty of power in hand and calculations showed Breedlove would have passed Mach 1 5 seconds later and could have gone on to exceed 900 miles per hour with both Breedlove and Noble aiming to run at Blackrock in late 1997 there was everything to play for by mid-september both teams were at Blackrock and Breedlove got his first chance to inspect thrust SSC in person the black twin-engine car was enormous dwarfing the sleek white sonic aero and the british team exude confidence and yet Breedlove was convinced his approach was the right one all his record-breaking experience had shown that streamlining and power needed to go hand in hand thrust SSC had a huge amount of power but it would need that to overcome a massive cross sectional area when Craig Breedlove walked away from the thrust camp he was more confident than ever on the morning of September the 8th Breedlove planned to run sonic aero three times aiming for 300 400 and 500 miles per hour the British team would run in the afternoon after losing a coin toss for the privilege the first run went without a hitch and Breedlove prepared for a second run as he opened the throttle ready to move off a rattling noise came from the j79 engine it soon became clear that a bolt had been sucked through the compressor blades the engine was junk Breedlove had no choice but to return to his Rio Vista workshop and fit the spare engine although he knew it wasn't running right he tapped his sponsors to fund a final push and maxed out his credit cards a week later he returned to the desert meanwhile at Black Rock thrust SSC was already running at over 600 miles per hour Breedlove started running sonic Aero again but it was clear from the start that there were many problems to be overcome the engine lacked power the car wasn't handling right and a buildup of dirt between the closely spaced front wheels was causing terrible vibrations in the cockpit above 300 miles per hour Breedlove was unable to read the instruments as Breedlove steam considered running without the center wheel to stop the build-up of dirt between the wheels thrust SSC set a new two-way record of 714 miles per hour smashing Nobles 1983 record by the biggest margin in land speed history Breedlove was one of the first to congratulate driver Andy green and the rest of the British team but his hopes of being the first through 700 miles-per-hour were gone all that was left for Breedlove and his sponsors was the supersonic record on October the 15th 1997 thrust SSC made it official - supersonic runs within one hour set a new land speed record of 763 point zero three five miles per hour or Mac one point zero two victorious and out of money the British team packed up and went home Breedlove continued running on the desert until mid-november but 1997 was a lost cause the car needed work funding was drying up and the weather was deteriorating Breedlove pushed on with fundraising in the hope of running the car at eight hundred miles per hour and returning the record to the US however without adequate funding in place the project gradually wound down at the end of 2006 Breedlove sold Sonic arrow to millionaire adventurous Steve Fossett who wanted to make his own attempt on the record Fossett steam made extensive changes to the car such as removing stabilizer fins to reduce drag millions of dollars were spent preparing the car to run in late 2007 however Fossett went missing in September of that year while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin desert scouting for suitable sites to run the car despite an extensive search it would be a year until his remains and the wreckage of his plane were found and that's where the story ends in 2010 sonic arrow was put up for sale with a price tag of three million dollars it now resides in the wings over the Rockies Museum in Denver Colorado in the US if you've enjoyed this video please subscribe and check out my channel for more until next time you

Channel: Scarf And Goggles

Views: 528,229

Rating: 4.8713703 out of 5

Keywords: Craig, Breedlove, Spirit Of America, Sonic, Arrow, Supersonic, Jet, Land Speed Record, Land Speed, Black Rock, Bonneville, Accident, Crash, Fastest, Fastest Car Crash, Richard Noble, Andy Green, ThrustSSC, Shell, Formula Shell, Thrust2, Mach 1, Steve Fossett

Id: tvdAw8dJ9cU

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 10 2019