Rocket Science on Two Wheels

dstone writes "Tim Pickens, president of Orion Propulsion, the rocket design firm behind SpaceShipOne, has designed a bicycle-mounted 200-pound-thrust rocket engine that will allow a bicycle to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds. From the article: 'The rocket bike employs the same hybrid rocket technology as the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, whose propulsion system Pickens helped design. [...] The engineer's next project is to build a company car: a pickup truck with a removable 2,000-pound-thrust rocket strapped into the bed.'"

Comments

Now thats cool

[squoozer]

Am I the only person left that likes to see a bit of dare devil in the people that try and push the boundaries.? The land speed record for cars, for isntance, has just become dull because the teams working on it are just too professional and there is only a tiny chance that something will go horribly wrong (a bit like F1 really). This, however, is "cool". There is a really good chance this guy could kill himself but he does it anyway to push the limits a bit.

Perhaps it's a little sick but there is no enjoyment in watching / following something like this if there isn't at least a moderate chance of failure. IMHO F1 would be improved if they removed the safety features and let computers drive the cars. We might get back to the good old days where there was some radical innovation (I remember one team fitted a massive fan to the bottom of the car to suck it down and another had a car with 6 wheels at one point).

Re:oh great

[Svaje]

There is only one speed setting for a bicycle. Full speed ahead! :) Svaje