Sideways rocket makes crosswind (Apr, 1964)
Sideways rocket makes crosswind
A rocket engine mounted on the side of a new car shows GM research engineers how it will react to any kind of crosswind.
The rocket’s thrust, from 50 to 200 pounds, can be accurately controlled, and the rocket can be mounted anywhere on the car. Instruments in the back seat record effect. Formerly, engineers drove a car through a blast from a propeller, but the quick passage was disadvantageous.
What about the guy in the next lane?
That must take lefts like an S.O.B!
Couldn’t they just get a wife to nag out the passenger side window instead of at the driver?
-ducks and runs-
Mike: That wouldn’t work. The driver would just absorb that with automatic reply: “Yes, dear.”
Is that the notorious Corvair they’re driving? Taking their lives in their hands…
Yes, that’ an early model “Vair. They didn’t have much problems with crosswinds, just some minor handling issues that made Ralph Nader call it “Unsafe at Any Speed”
Yes, that’ an early model ‘Vair. They didn’t have much problem with crosswinds, just some minor handling issues that made Ralph Nader call it “Unsafe at Any Speed”
Actually, if you read the book, most of the safety problems Nader was complaining about were common to *most* cars of the era — the Corvair was just a convenient object lesson, because it was new at the time and embodied most of the issues.