The Budweiser Rocket was a 3-wheeled land vehicle powered by an hybrid liquid and solid-fuel rocket engine that is claimed to be the first vehicle to have broken the sound barrier on land (near sea level) driven by Stan Barrett. There is much debate over the validity of the claim, and the Budweiser Rocket is generally not considered as the first vehicle to have broken the sound barrier on land.

The claim of breaking the sound barrier on land was made on December 17, 1979 after a run on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwars AFB. Even if the Budweiser Rocket did break the sound barrier, it can not pretend to any official titles because standard ground speed record regulations which ignore top speed and require a speed measured on either a kilometer or a miles.

The first run of the car at Bonneville showed that the propulsion system was unable to develop enough power to sustain a speed high enough to establish an new official World Land Speed Record. The team decided then that his goal to exceed the speed of sound on land, regardless of the fact that no official authority would recognize the achievement as a record.

The speed of sound is essentially a function of the air density. In other words sound barrier is not a absolute speed value, but dependent on air conditions. The speed of sound during Barrett's speed run was 731.9.

The measurement of the vehicle's top speed during the run has been disputed primarily of the methods used to calculate the speed, and its extremely small margin of success.

No independent authority was sanctioning the performance, the team was the only judge of his success or failure. The report on the speed came nearly eight hours after the run. The data of the run were interpreted as indicating a high degree of probability that the car exceeded the speed of sound by achieving a peek speed 739.666 miles per hour, or Mach 1.01. However according to witnesses no sonic boom was heard.

• Claimed speed: 739.666 miles per hour ( Mach 1.01 )
  • Calculated
  • Released 8 hours after event
• Eyewitness Testinmony: no sonic boom was audible
• Recorded radar speed: 38 mph ( recorded speed of truck nearby by accident)
• Other recorded data: Accelerometer data from vehicle, images, other
• Driver: Stan Barret
• Other top speed claims: 638 mph in earlier attempt

The "Budweiser Rocket" is in the Talladega Super Speedway Museum, Alabama, USA. (circa 2004)

The Thrust SSC is recognized as breaking the sound barrier in 1997, with a average speed of 763.035 mph (1227.99 km/h) on a mile.

Link to site that examines claim:

• [link]

Other Links:

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