A rocket car is a land vehicle powered by a rocket engine.

Rocket cars are capable of very high speeds, and at one time held the land speed record (now held by a jet car). Rocket cars differ from jet powered cars in that they carry both fuel and oxidizer on board, eliminating the need for an air inlet and compressor which add weight and increase drag. Rocket cars run their engines for very brief periods of time, usually less than 20 seconds, but the acceleration levels that rocket cars can reach due to their high thrust-to-weight ratio are such that supersonic speeds can be reached.

Rocket cars have been used as rocket dragsters, and hold the unofficial world record for the 1/4 mile.

[edit] History

• Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer
• Friedrich Sander, rocketry pioneer
• Kitty O'Neil in 1977 recorded the quickest quarter mile elapsed time in of 3.22 seconds at 396 mph (637 km/h) and made a quarter mile run with a top speed of 412 mph (663 km/h). This is in excess of the performance of more familiar Piston Engined dragsters.

[edit] Famous rocket cars

• Opel RAK.1, the first rocket car
• Valier-Heylandt Rak 7, the first rocket car with liquid propulsion
• Heylandt Rocket Car, see Arthur Rudolph
• Budweiser Rocket, the first vehicle (controversially) claimed to have broken the sound barrier
• Blue Flame, a vehicle that held the land speed record
• The Devil at Your Heels a documentary covering an attempt to cross the Saint Lawrence River in a rocket car

[edit] See also

• JATO Rocket Car, an urban legend
• Rocket sled

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