“Rocket” Car Goes 40 M.P.H. (Oct, 1937)
Filed under: Automotive — @ 2:21 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1937
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Oct, 1937
| Buy on Ebay
“Rocket” Car Goes 40 M.P.H.
EQUIPPED with a one-cylinder motor that provides propulsion based on the theory of the fluid rocket, a novel midget car has been developed by Millet, famous Paris engineer. On its trial runs, the three-wheeler car is said to have attained speeds exceeding 40 m.p.h. The all-metal car is bullet-like in its appearance.
Here’s an item I urge you to keep your eye peeled for: The original story about the rocket car–the source of all the legends that followed.
I came upon this in a 1946 or 1948 magazine of that type that I’d bought at a yard sale. I tore it out and mailed it to the head of the organization that hands out the Darwin Awards: someone in London with an Indian name. (I’ve lost track of it now.) I unfortunately didn’t make a Xerox copy.
Anyway, the story was a half-page item, half of it text and half a photo, of an old-timey boxy car with two JATO rockets strapped to it that someone–it may have been one of the armed forces–was using for testing, or for sport. I can’t remember. I believe the location was in the southwest.
Comment by Roger Knights — January 9, 2008 @ 2:01 pm