The Budweiser Rocket - Controversial Rocket Car

the Budweiser rocket fast certainly controversial without doubt supersonic the jury's still out [Music] owned by film director hal needham built by hot rod legend bill Frederic and driven by stuntman Stan Barrett in December 1979 the Budweiser rocket reportedly went supersonic on Rogers dry lake in the US arguments over whether the car actually broke the sound barrier continued to this day and have overshadowed many details of the project the Budweiser rocket was based on Bill Frederick's previous rocket car the SMI motivator which had already been driven to over 600 miles per hour in 1976 Budweiser sponsorship pledge was specific break the sound barrier despite the project's supersonic ambitions the design philosophy was simple the car should have the smallest frontal area and the largest amount of power possible designed to fit snugly round driver Stan Barrett the fuselage was just 20 inches wide and 24 inches high rising to 39 inches at the top of the cockpit canopy overall the car measured 39 feet 2 inches long and 8 feet 10 inches high at the top of the tail fin fully fueled it weighed 2.4 tonnes thrust was provided by a Roma tech v4 hybrid rocket engine which used hydrogen peroxide to ignite a polymer-based solid fuel producing 24,000 pounds of thrust incredibly an additional six thousand four hundred pounds was provided by mounting a Sidewinder missile above the main engine to be fired at 600 miles per hour to propel the car through the sound barrier although the main engine could be shut down by the driver the Sidewinder was a simple solid rocket motor and once lit would run until its fuel had been used up around 6 seconds later with so much power on tap the Budweiser rocket boasted stunning performance from a standing start the car could exceed 700 miles per hour in 16 seconds the driver experienced acceleration up to four G with a further 1g added when the Sidewinder was lit the Budweiser rockets solid aluminium wheels were a feature which has been adopted by all subsequent land speed record challenges rubber tires would have disintegrated at the speeds that the team were aiming for the Budweiser rocket was not designed to be serviced and turned around for a second run within one hour which has always been a requirement of the FIA sanctioned land speed record it also became clear during early test runs that the car was incapable of sustaining its peak speed through a measured mile or kilometer course as its slim fuselage couldn't carry enough fuel which limited its chances of setting an officially recognised record consequently the team changed its declared goal although this would not be an attempt on the land speed record Stan Barrett would aim to be the first man to break the sound barrier on land from September 1979 the Budweiser rocket ran 18 times the first runs at Bonneville used the rocket engine at half power with hydrogen peroxide used as a mono propellant and without the Sidewinder nevertheless the car Paytas 638 miles per hour but an eye even lakebed surface was blamed for the rear wheels lifting at speed a move to Rogers dry lake at Edwards Air Force Base in California presented a better surface speeds were gradually increased over subsequent runs until early on December the 17th the team prepared for the highly publicized attempt on the sound barrier the speed of sound depends on prevailing conditions including air temperature and pressure on that morning the team's Mach 1 target speed was seven hundred and thirty one point nine miles per hour a huge TV audience watched Barrett's squeeze into the Budweiser rockets slim fuselage and ready the car for the run with blasts of steam shooting from the rocket engine as it was warmed up finally the countdown began [Music] perfect start stand there and roars toward the mile marker it's the Sidewinder daddy for the two mile marker we have seen this vehicle make some 18 runs but nuts so did the Budweiser rocket break the sound barrier this question has proved controversial over the last 40 years with many of the subsequent arguments hinging on the way the cars speed was measured the United States Air Force used radar to track the vehicle and recorded its speed as 38 miles per hour clearly an error it is thought that the radar locked on to a truck moving in the background during the rockets run data from accelerometers onboard the car was analysed instead and eight hours after the run the team declared that they had indeed broken the sound barrier with a peak speed of seven hundred and thirty nine point six six six miles per hour or Mac one point zero one commentators have taken issue with this method of calculating the speed by definition accelerometers measure instantaneous acceleration and can be unreliable as a means of measuring accumulated speed particularly in a vehicle that was vibrating like the Budweiser rocket did under power no data was ever released and so the claimed speed could not be independently verified in the days following the radar data was reportedly corrected by driving a vehicle down the course and taking range measurements then retrospectively calculating a speed of 734 miles per hour using these measurements with the other data that the radar had recorded subsequently the United States Air Force issued a carefully worded letter asserting that within the accuracy of the speed measuring devices used in their opinion Mach one had been exceeded though they later appeared to backtrack by saying they never intended to give official sanction to test results nor to give the appearance of expressing an official view as to the speed attained by the test vehicle any such opinion was that of individual Air Force personnel not of the Air Force the International Hot Rod Association had set up three sets of timing traps which should have given a precise speed for a sanctioned land speed record attempt the time section is either a mile or a kilometer long for Stan Barrett's unsanctioned attempt on the sound barrier the time section was just fifty two point eight feet or sixteen point one meters long 1/100 of a mile at the declared speed of seven hundred and thirty nine point six six six miles per hour the Budweiser rocket would have passed through the speed trap in zero point zero four seven nine seconds this leaves very little margin for error with even the slightest discrepancy making a significant difference in the recorded speed in the event though no data was ever presented from the speed traps and it has been suggested that the car may even have run out of fuel and been slowing before it reached the timing beams chuck yeager the first man to break the sound barrier in 1947 asserted that the car's rear wheels leaving the ground during the run proved that supersonic shockwaves were present in other words that the Budweiser rocket was traveling at a speed beyond the sound barrier this sounds plausible and yet aerodynamicists have since pointed to subsonic and transonic aerodynamic effects having similar lifting characteristics on other land speed record vehicles below Mach 1 for example Craig Breedlove's 600 miles per hour spirit of America sonic 1 skeptical observers pointed out at the time that the anticipated sonic boom was not heard spectators close to the course might not have heard a sonic boom over the noise of the rocket motor and the Sidewinder firing however in 1997 thrust SSC demonstrated that the sonic boom from a land vehicle going supersonic can be heard some distance away and yet there's no evidence of a sonic boom on the 1979 film for his part Stan Barret claims to have felt violent buffeting as the car approached its peak speed before things smoothed out similar to the observations of test pilots such as Chuck Yeager as they approached the sound barrier Barret has never been in any doubt he went supersonic there can be no argument that Stan Barrett's bid to break the sound barrier in the Budweiser rocket was a brave and spectacular event and it is unfair to dismiss it purely as a publicity stunt but 40 years on the question still remains did he or didn't he if you've enjoyed this video please subscribe and check out my channel for more until next time you

Channel: Scarf And Goggles

Views: 386,253

Keywords: Budweiser, Rocket, Stan, Barrett, Hal, Needham, Bill Frederick, Supersonic, Sound Barrier, Sidewinder, Speed, Record, Hotrod, Hot Rod, Dragster, Bonneville, Edwards, Area 51, Rosco, On this day, Dec 17, 17, December, 1979, Chuck, Yeager, Mach 1

Id: f7CoyJAMqwc

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2019