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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.11.16 20:56l 57 Lines 2641 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 13289_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 15
Path: IW8PGT<HB9CSR<IR2UBX<IZ3LSV<ED1ZAC<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 161115/1319Z 13289@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1965
Craig Breedlove sets new land-speed record
On November 15, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah,
28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed
record - 600.601 miles an hour - in his car, the Spirit of
America, which cost $250,000 and was powered by a surplus engine
from a Navy jet. He actually drove across the desert twice that
day, since international world-record rules require a car to make
two timed one-mile runs in one hour. (Officials log the average
speed of the two trips.) During his first trip, Breedlove
traveled at a rate of 593.178 mph; during his second, the first
time any person had officially gone faster than 600 mph, he
traveled at a rate of 608.201 mph. "That 600 is about a thousand
times better than 599," he said afterward. "Boy, it's a great
feeling."
For nearly 20 years, the fastest man on land had been England's
John Cobb, who had driven his internal-combustion Railton Special
a record 394.2 mph at the salt flats in 1947. (Bonneville was a
popular place for drag races and speed tests because, unlike
concrete, its salt surface absorbed plenty of water, which kept
the track cool.) But in October 1963, Breedlove piloted a
three-wheeled version of the Spirit of America to a new record:
407.45 mph.
Then, the floodgates opened: For the next two years, Breedlove
and two other racers - Tom Green and Art Arfons, who drove a
home-built machine that he called the Green Monster - passed the
land-speed title around like a hot potato. They broke the record
six times in one year, something no one had done since 1904.
In October 1964, Breedlove became the first man to go faster than
500 mph, and he nearly died in the process: The Spirit of
America's parachute - the machine's braking mechanism - snapped
off at the end of the mile, and Breedlove careened off the track,
through a stand of telephone poles, and into a salt pond. He
escaped through the car's rooftop hatch with a new record: 526.28
mph. Arfons shattered that record a year later, but his glory was
fleeting. Just over a week later, Breedlove and his jet car
zoomed past the 600 mph mark.
Arfons vowed that he'd be back, but he'd damaged the Green
Monster during his record-breaking run and could never quite fix
it. Instead, Breedlove held the title for nearly five years,
until Gary Gabelich coaxed his rocket-powered Blue Flame to an
average speed of 622.4 mph. The current land-speed record, set by
Britain's Andy Green in 1997, is 766.069 mph - faster than the
speed of sound.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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