Waldo Says: May 2009
This month began with Ken Mason and me on a road trip to Tillamook Oregon famous on the west coast for great tasting cheese. While I was up there I bought a bunch for friends and family. I thought it was pretty good but it can’t touch Wisconsin cheese or the corn that grows there. Coming from Chicago, growing up in an Italian neighborhood and weaned on the best pizza (Better actually than pizza made in Italy) on the planet I know great cheese and No one touches Wisconsin cheese.
We didn’t go all the way up there for cheese though; we actually drove up to meet self proclaimed “Aerospace Gypsy” Terry Spath. 
Terry coined that phrase and it defines engineers who roam from one aerospace job to another in order to pay the bills. Terry has been doing this for decades besides working as a full time Lear jet pilot. He also owns and flies a twin engine Beechcraft Baron and was nice enough to take us for a quick couple of hundred mile ride. It is one neat and fast aircraft. Terry is always helping pioneer something new in the aerospace industry and you can see what he has been doing by checking his website at www.spathengineering.com/ as always you will be amazed at what one man and a box of tools can do if he has some smarts and travels his own road.
Terry gave Ken and me a couple of highly efficient turbojet engines and a start cart to fire them up. Ken has wanted to do some static turbojet testing in order to learn more about turbojets so Terry interceded with another Aerospace company to lend us the hardware. What I have planned to do with the turbojets is a secret. The Aerospace gypsy family is a small one and we always help each other out. Here is a photo of the Grey Ghost turned into a turbojet hauler in gloomy Tillamook Oregon.
I call my Grey 2002 Ford 4X4 F-150 pick up the Grey Ghost because it is virtually invisible to cops on the highway and I have never been issued a ticket for speeding in it even though I constantly drive between 80 and 90 M.P.H. on California highways. Driving my white pickups I received 17 tickets so I have more than contributed to any police funds as far as I am concerned. I believe that the dark grey of my current truck makes it blend in with the color of the roadway acting like camouflage. So all you guys wanting to buy fast or exotic cars get the dark grey one and report back to me on your stealth abilities.
I always say that when the going gets tough the tough get going / as the going gets rough the weak start showing! I know that the global economy is falling apart but I have decided that the next step in building Imagine LSRV is to get a “real workshop” as in an industrial building. Even though I get a lot done here at the house shop, corporate America is not going to sponsor some old guy whittling away in his backyard. So even though I don‘t have a spare dime to spend I am on the hunt for an at least 2,000 square foot workshop with three phase 220 Volt power. This way we can get the most from the Mill, Lathe and welders we have scrounged up so far. Hopefully I will find one owned by someone who will understand our situation here in town somewhere. I will let you know more about this as I figure out how to wrangle one up. Believe it or not I have had some pretty good leads so far.
Talking about guys working in their home shops, Mike Charlton has finished his J-85 turbojet powered motorcycle “Aslan” and is getting ready to make a bid on the motorcycle land speed record. He thinks the bike can hit 500 M.P.H. but my calcs lean more toward 600 M.P.H. If his engine makes 4,000 lbs. of thrust and has an 8 mile run in. I so enjoy Mike’s “get out of my way and toss me that wrench” attitude that my son Tone and I helped sponsor him with a bit of cash. Mike sent us some cool T shirts and put one of our Sonic Wind bumper stickers on Aslan.
Mike has a dirt cheap, grassroots sponsorship program that YOU can and should be a part of. For $40.00 he sends you a T shirt and puts your name on the bike for all time! Now what can be sweeter than that? Contact Mike at http://mikecharlton.com or call him because you will never meet a more interesting character in all your life. He has guts, smarts and a sense of humor second to none. Mike said that he was grateful for my sponsorship as I give him credibility. I had to laugh as my thought was Mike doesn’t need any thing form me he just built his own jet powered 500 M.P.H. bike! Mike and Aslan are credibility! Good luck to him and LSRV, LCC will be here if he needs us.
For you guys wondering how efficient the twin pod Single Plane Force Streamliner body design can be. Here is a photo of the Greenbird streamliner on the Playa. Driven by Richard Jenkins, this Brit just set his class record using that body design at 152 M.P.H. His propulsion system?…..the wind! 
Google the Greenbird as it is all over the web or go to http://www.greenbird.co.uk/ to learn more about this fantastic wind sailor.
Later on in the month I was called by Michael Hughes. He is known around the world as the “World’s most famous limo driver” and a stunt man of sorts. He is working on a steam rocket powered jump limousine to jump from Arizona into California over the Colorado River. I gave him a few components to start building his own steam rocket engine in which to install into his rocket limo which actually resembles a short, rotund, rocket ship. True to go getter, I got to get this done fashion (I love these guys) . Without knowing anything about steam rockets and with the little data and hardware I gave him he built the engine in a few months and was ready to test fire.
I drove over to the Rialto raceway (actually a go cart track) where the 4,000 lb. thrust rocket was bolted to a test stand and was being prepared for testing. This is a steam powered rocket engine almost identical to the one built by Robert Truax for Evel Knievel’s X-2 Skycycle and his famous 1974 Snake River canyon jump.
Ken Mason fondly calls this type of engine the 4-4-4-4-4 steam rocket. This translates to 400 lbs. of water heated to 400 plus degrees and 400 plus pounds of pressure will deliver 4,000 lbs. of thrust for 4 seconds. Sounds simple and neat but in reality these things if handled incorrectly can be lethal and are more dangerous than a bi propellant rocket. That is because all their explosive power is already created and only needs an escape route. Essentially you heat them up and pull the plug.
Steam rockets have a fairly low Isp but steam is nothing to fool with and these things are definitely NOT TEA KETTLES! So before you would be drag racers and rocketeers go looking for a vessel to build a steam rocket I want you to go on YOU TUBE and look at the short film “Myth Busters- The water heater.”
Here is a quick reality check…..Probably pound for pound the most powerful land machines ever built by man were the steam locomotives of the early 20th century. One of the biggest commonly used (there were bigger experimental engines built but their weight would tear up the tracks so they were shelved) of these was the Union Pacific “Big Boy” steam engine. It was capable of pulling a fully loaded COAL TRAIN, 5 MILES LONG BY ITSELF AT 80 MILES PER HOUR on level ground or hauling the whole thing up the Wasatch mountains! Again that is ONE ENGINE by itself working alone. It would take 8 to 10 modern diesel engines to do the same job today.
The biggest moving objects of that time period were the ocean going passenger ships. They were all powered by steam engines. One of the most famous “The Queen Mary” is now docked in Long Beach harbor in California and is currently a museum and a hotel for tourists. But in the 1940s during World War 2 she was a key in winning the war in Europe. In wartime she was painted over Grey, even the portholes were painted to not emit any light at night giving her extreme stealth. She was nicknamed “The Grey Ghost”. There is that name again.
She was so fast that no other ships not even a fast destroyer of the day could keep up with her so she always sailed unescorted, alone and unarmed. Her tremendous speed was her only weapon. She cruised at 30 plus knots and could carry 16,000 plus troops on each voyage. By the end of the war she had carried 1.6 million troops into the European theater and was instrumental in the defeat of Italy and Germany. No German Wolf Pack submarine could even draw a bead on her as she sailed away in zigzag pattern as they were trying to aim their torpedoes. The Queen Mary held the Blue Riband award of the day which was the medal given to the fastest Atlantic ocean crossing vessel.
Sadly, she did sink one ship but it was one of her own named the Curacoa. The two vessels were steaming in zigzag to avoid U-boats when a miscalculation translated into the Queen Mary quickly over taking and striking the Curacoa. Sliced open she went down quickly along with her 430 man crew, 101 of which survived. With 11,000 troops on board the
Queen Mary could not even lend assistance as she would have been a sitting duck for U-boats so she had to steam away.
After the war she was reconverted back into a passenger vessel but by the late 1960s she was losing money and was later sold to the city of Long Beach for $3,450,000.00. The point here is simple- steam is powerful, Period!
Anyway when I got to the rocket test site I realized that what I was looking at was not a steam rocket but a steam bomb! A bomb bolted to the ground with only 4 redhead bolts! So I froze the test and consulted with Michael. I knew he would test no matter what I said so I asked if he would wait a day and in return I would help him. He agreed and we all went home to rest. My spidey sense sensed destruction, injury, possible loss of life and long term lawsuits were on the horizon.
I called my partner and propulsion expert Ken Mason and e-mailed him photos of the so called ”Rocket engine.” Ken gave me a list of the modifications and hardware that were needed to make the rocket work and be safe and I called them in to Michael. I also came back the next day with a dozen come a longs, chain and cable to make a makeshift rocket test stand that would handle 4,000 lbs. of rocket thrust load. I had the race track owner borrow an industrial forklift and we dismantled the race track using 3 concrete K Rails to build a load distributing and protective horseshoe shaped structure around the rocket engine. Each K rail weighs over 9,000 lbs. Here is a shot of the construction underway.
We installed the rocket engine, I fed the loads throughout the entire structure than we started the heater up to build steam. We moved the fire controls a hundred feet away behind another line of K rails where everyone could lie in safety. Before I arrived the crew planned to stand over the engine and decide when to fire it while watching a temperature gauge and a pressure gauge! Sometimes there seems to be a fine line between “Hold my beer and watch this” and safe rocket engine testing and data acquisition!
We got off two tests firings that day but the heater wasn’t up to par and the highest temperature we could heat the water to was 300 degrees F. The steam rocket was a bit weak but it did work. Michael Hughes is back at it and making changes to the heater and called me today to tell me they will test again next week. I will keep you posted. There is no doubt that we will someday be watching Mad Michael Hughes - The World’s most famous Limo driver jumping from Arizona into California on his rocket powered limo. See him at http:www.michaelhughes1.com.
Here is a shot of the steam rocket test stand. 
I do this kind of stuff all the time for free because “Righteous is non negotiable” and I hate to see people posted on the Darwin awards. The aerospace gypsies win again! Saving, assets, property and lives one project at a time.
I just finished reading the book “One Good Run the legend of Burt Munro” written by Tim Hanna. Boy when I die and someone wants to write about me (if there is ever any need to) I hope it is Tim Hanna. This book is by far the best documentary written about anyone in racing. Autobiographies aren’t as well researched! i.e. one of the legends about Munro was that he cast his own pistons and cylinders for his record bike in the sand of the local beach. Tim reports that actually Burt had some very good help in his casting and consulted professionals to accomplish this. Even though this rumor was started Munro never dispelled it as he was perpetuating a myth. All in all Herbert Munro alias Burt Munro is painted as a likable, womanizing opportunist but you can’t help but love him in this book. Get this book if you love motorcycles, cycle racing and their history like I do, you won’t be sorry.
Mid month I attended the memorial for famous safety equipment mogul Jim Deist. It was held at the Drag racing museum at the Pomona fairgrounds and drag strip. There were about 300 people there, most of which were famous or semi famous racers. There were also many drag racing and SCTA luminaries such as the still beautiful although getting on Linda Vaughn the famous 1960s and 1970s Hurst shifter girl. Guys were still fawning all over her and I could understand why. I like to sit in the back of such things and just watch human nature unfold. I know that if Jim is looking down he is glad that so many people respected him and his work.
Many of the racers got up and told stories about how Jim Deist saved their lives with his safety equipment. A pastor told about how he had known Jim for only 7 months but knew he was a godly man who prayed all the time. Sometimes some people get the time to really connect with the Almighty before they meet him in person. This is a wonderful thing but not everyone is so lucky. I thought man, praying all the time? That wasn’t the Big Jim Deist I remember.
I wanted to tell the story of how I had found an adult VHS tape on the highway and mailed it to Jim by mistake instead of mailing it to a friend of mine. I had mistakenly switched the video with one of Sonic Wind running as I was trying to get Deist Safety Inc. to develop the parachutes for the Sonic Wind project. When I arrived at our meeting I asked him if he had seen the video I had sent him? He said that he had but why would I send him an adult porno tape? I was so red I must have glowed and told him the story about the mix up. We both laughed for along time and then I asked him if I could have it back? He said “No, I haven’t finished watching it yet.” As I left his office with the promise of his help I wondered, does anyone ever watch a whole adult video? I never saw that tape again. Sometimes no matter how funny a story might be it can be out of place. Man, was I ever tempted to tell that one but after the pastor‘s story how could I?…..Waldo
