ROCKET CAR

Southland Times, Issue 20495, 25 May 1928, Page 7

ROCKET CAR

BERMAN INVENTION • PRACTICAL TEST CARRIED OUT AMAZING IMPETUS GAINED (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) Berlin, May 23. Amazing results were attained on the Arns racecourse when the official trial of the rocket motor car was carried out. It bounded off like a bomb, emitting flame and smoke, and was travelling at a speed of 125 miles hourly 40 seconds after the etart. Its inventor, Herr Opel, says he will now build a new model capable of 205 miles hourly on a rail track. When Opel took his seat his head was just projecting. Under a roar like a broadside from a cruiser the car shot off like a flash, spitting tongues of fire from the rear and disappeared in clouds of thick smoke and black flakes. Then it shot forward at a speed of 112 miles hourly and each roar portended the explosion of the rocket. It was not an attempt to break the speed record. The idea was to demonstrate the successful application of the principle, the whole future of which is iq the air—not on the ground. To travel at a height of 20 miles at a speed of 700 miles per hour and the circumnavigation of the earth in a day are among Opel’s concrete proposals. He says it will not be long before nations will be compete ing for the development of rocket aviation. Two thousand spectators were thrilled and alarmed. The president of the German Scientific Research said: “We are perhaps standing at the turning point of world communication.” —Australian Press Association. The rocket car resembles a racer, except that a steel chamber at the rear contains twelve pipes, whence rockets are discharged. Pairs of pipes are connected with fuses, am' are linked to a switchboard controlled by the driver. The rockets are discharged by an electric spark causing a sheet of flame to burst out, the car leaping forward with terrific speed, enveloped in a smoke cloud.” The drawback is that each rocket costs a small fortune.