EXPECT HIGH SPEED OF ROCKET-DRIVEN PLANE (Dec, 1930)
EXPECT HIGH SPEED OF ROCKET-DRIVEN PLANE
If their calculations are correct, a barrage of rockets will soon send a ten-foot model plane whizzing through the air. Maurice Poirier and Franklin L. Wallace, of Los Angeles, Calif., built the model and if it flies they will attempt to build a full-sized craft on the same plan. They predict that the rockets will give the model a speed approaching ten miles a minute.
I always how these made news. Always some model or prototype that is as yet untested, with grandiose claims by the inventor. How about testing the damn thing, then if it works, now THATS news!
Unless these rockets could ALL be ignited at EXACTLY the same time and contain the same amount of fuel packed to burn at the same rate, this thing would have probably ripped itself apart and with 20 rockets at the rear and only 6 at the tips, with no visible control surfaces I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what happened long before they achieved 600 mph!
Ya, my first thought was also that if you already built it, try it, and then report the news. The journalistic intergrity of these magazines is often pretty low, so I guess some things haven’t changed too much.
Oh please! Man will never fly.