Bluebird was decades ahead of its time

http://www.bluebirdproject.com/

The ongoing restoration of Bluebird to running condition is providing the first good photographic record of how the boat was constructed.

Appreciating how far ahead of its time Bluebird was becomes much easier when you compare the boat to the way every other hydroplane in the mid-fifties was designed and built.

 

Do you have any projects of your own this year?

After taxes I might be too broke to finish mine.

 

Projects

Oddly enough, I've been thinking over a new personal project.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up at a local surplus store a piece of 4 inch diameter 4.25 inch long titanium billet.

This find has rekindled my interest in exploring the minimum size limits for a manned rocket car, so I'm shopping around for a machinist to turn the titanium billet into a set of four tireless wheels.

The typical skateboard deck is a 7 ply maple laminate, much like a wooden propeller blank but with less plies. Since wooden is a good vibration dampener, I'm looking at using skateboard decks as axle beams to go with the tireless wheels.

For steering I'm considering a tiller system with a pivoting front axle similar to what soapbox derby cars use but with more rugged construction.

I have several ideas about brakes, but won't have a more definitive approach until I see how much space the hubs take up on the wheels.

The rocket motor is still an open question. A friend of mine, who previously has built many hydrogen peroxide rocket motors at thrusts of up to 5,000 lbs, has some very interesting ideas on how to build a simple injector for gaseous propellants. With a 500 lbs gross weight vehicle, 500 lbs thrust would generate 1g acceleration. If burn time were kept to 5 seconds or less, that would probably be short enough to eliminate a cooling jacket.

1g for 5 seconds would be over 100 mph.

 

This is one project that testing it out in RC (Radio Control) version first might be a good idea.

You could pick up a used hovercraft and put a rocket motor on it, we don't have brakes to begin with.

 

Rockets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDDI5h8JQE0

Here's video of a Swiss team that has run a small car using a steam rocket.

A steam rocket is essentially just a tank filled with 250 to 400 degree water and a nozzle. Cheap, but it's got some operating limitations.

 

My father died of burns, I'm not going anywhere near that stuff. Steam burns skin too.

It does look fun though.

 

Scale Models

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwQ5vsRFWHw

Video of a jet RC model of Bluebird

 

Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V9r1zsFmVk

Good film of the Bluebird boat and land speed car.

 

Burns

Just the thought of burns gives me the heebie jeebies.

 

very strange!! As a kid we would walk down to the lake to watch Donald take a pass - that is the whole school class would ! See histor being made !! I cant remember if we actually watched his last run, but it seams like we did. A friend of my parents took the only footage of the loop. Dang I must be getting old

 

It's been nice knowing you, FranklinRatliff....
Do be careful, will you?

 

frank what part of florida you in

 

Location

Orlando.

Know any good old school machinists who can think for themselves and make a part without a lot of direction?

 

stynermotorsports.com
i think his dad is good

 

Machinists

Thanks. I'll check them out.