North American Eagle over 400

[MCR]

Just curious, what is the fastest anyone has gone on El Mirage?

[John Noonan]

Fastest car during an SCTA meet is Pete Prentice at 312 mph
Fastest biker only went 240

[Ratliff]

Kitty O'Neil may have gone 400 mph at El Mirage in Ky Michaelson's rocket dragster.

She also went very fast there in Michaelson's rocket Funny Car.

http://www.the-rocketman.com/RPV/kitty.html

[desotoman]

Ed,

Glad to hear the brakes worked fine and temps were down. Always nice to know you have some stopping power if all else fails.

Tom G.

[bak189]

Just think John, how fast you would have gone if you had been able to shift into high gear!!!!!!!!!

[isiahstites]

Fastest biker only went 240

And I wonder who the guy was that went 240?? Imagine if it was paved??

[Jondolar]

Does anyone know what distance they went trying to stop using only the wheel brakes? Or were they able to deploy some low speed chutes? The article really did not say.

Tom G.

I can answer this question, as I was the one who laid out the course with the help of another individual using a GPS unit. The course was a total of 3.5 miles distance. I was standing at the 2 mile point off the side of the course when Ed zipped by. He was accelerating in afterburner for about 5 seconds up to the 2 mile point, cut the engine power back as he passed, but the car was still accelerating well into the first quarter mile after this while Ed went into his deceleration process. I've been to all test sessions, and he was moving much faster on this run than it's ever gone before. While I don't claim to be an expert on judging how fast a vehicle is moving, it's also deceptive to watch such a large vehicle go by. When the chute system failed to delploy, Ed had already deployed the speed brake doors and began using the magnetic brakes on the rear wheel to bring it to a stop.

When I got down to where the Eagle had finally stopped, it was just beyond the 3.5 mile cones and only about 50 yards from the rough area with depressions on the eastern end of the lake bed where there is a set of "islands" of vegatation that comes out onto the lake bed from the southern edge. So, he effectively brought the 13,000 lb. vehicle to a complete stop within a mile's distance. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this new technology being tested on the Eagle and the team is very grateful to Lev-X as a long-time sponsor. It has proven to be incredibly reliable to the project. Our top priority is now to install a "fail safe" deployment system on the Eagle.

[Ratliff]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busemann's_Biplane

http://www.ad.mech.tohoku.ac.jp/yamazaki/RESEARCH/busemann/index.html

I've been giving some thought on how to get a useful  reduction in drag on NAE, which is not easy given that the car is already highly streamlined and the real hurtle is wave drag rather than viscous or form drag.

However, since a Busemann Biplane should still work when oriented vertically instead of horizontally, it seems to me if each rear wheel were placed inside one wing of the biplane the facing wing could cancel out the wave drag on the wheel. There might be an increase in subsonic drag, but if wave drag on the rear wheels were reduced or eliminated that would more than balance out the subsonic drag penalty.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Okay, Franklin -- here's today's question for you:  Why did you post this on the landracing.com site?  If you've got a question for the NAE folks -- send it directly to them instead of putting it here, stating that you've been thinking about a subject, and then going on.  It's good that you put links instead of entire pages of text -- but once again -- better to go directly to those that have specific ability to use the information you have.

If you go to NAE, for example, and develop a line of discussion that might be interesting to us -- please, go ahead and bring it to us afterwards.  But I don't think that putting things here and hoping that some specific reader will see it and respond -- is the proper way.

[Ratliff]

Okay, Franklin -- here's today's question for you:  Why did you post this on the landracing.com site?  If you've got a question for the NAE folks -- send it directly to them instead of putting it here, stating that you've been thinking about a subject, and then going on.  It's good that you put links instead of entire pages of text -- but once again -- better to go directly to those that have specific ability to use the information you have.

If you go to NAE, for example, and develop a line of discussion that might be interesting to us -- please, go ahead and bring it to us afterwards.  But I don't think that putting things here and hoping that some specific reader will see it and respond -- is the proper way.

It is common on this site for comments and suggestions to be made about other people's cars.

The tripling of drag between Mach .8 and Mach 1.0 shown in these drag curves is an example of the effects of wave drag.

http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,4046.0.html

Wave drag is no small effect.

[MCR]

... So, he effectively brought the 13,000 lb. vehicle to a complete stop within a mile's distance. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this new technology being tested on the Eagle and the team is very grateful to Lev-X as a long-time sponsor. It has proven to be incredibly reliable to the project. Our top priority is now to install a "fail safe" deployment system on the Eagle.

This technology sounds facinating.  Where does the energy go with magnetic brakes?  

[Ratliff]

... So, he effectively brought the 13,000 lb. vehicle to a complete stop within a mile's distance. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this new technology being tested on the Eagle and the team is very grateful to Lev-X as a long-time sponsor. It has proven to be incredibly reliable to the project. Our top priority is now to install a "fail safe" deployment system on the Eagle.

This technology sounds facinating.  Where does the energy go with magnetic brakes?  

Heat.

However, the brakes are free from fade.

[MCR]

... So, he effectively brought the 13,000 lb. vehicle to a complete stop within a mile's distance. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this new technology being tested on the Eagle and the team is very grateful to Lev-X as a long-time sponsor. It has proven to be incredibly reliable to the project. Our top priority is now to install a "fail safe" deployment system on the Eagle.

This technology sounds facinating.  Where does the energy go with magnetic brakes?  

Heat.

A little more specific?  Electric coils that are air cooled?  Water cooled?  Big mass of metal that isn't actively cooled?

Sidebar - I went to an amusement park in Southern California and they had a mag drive thrill ride, that used mag brakes too.  It accelerated you up to 100mph then let gravity burn off the speed as it went up vertical.  So it rolls back towards the start at a high rate of speed, then mag brakes kick on.  Except when I rode it with my wife and another couple, we shot backwards at 80mph through the emergency brake failure door in the back of the boarding area building.  The brakes had "hit" for a split second then released as we entered the boarding area.  My wife and her girlfriend came unglued, but my buddy John and I said to the operator "You screwed that ride up!  We want to go again!" The brakes were smooth and accurate the second attempt (without my wife and her friend of course).

[Ratliff]

... So, he effectively brought the 13,000 lb. vehicle to a complete stop within a mile's distance. This is a testament to the effectiveness of this new technology being tested on the Eagle and the team is very grateful to Lev-X as a long-time sponsor. It has proven to be incredibly reliable to the project. Our top priority is now to install a "fail safe" deployment system on the Eagle.

This technology sounds facinating.  Where does the energy go with magnetic brakes?  

Heat.

A little more specific?  Electric coils that are air cooled?  Water cooled?  Big mass of metal that isn't actively cooled?

Sidebar - I went to an amusement park in Southern California and they had a mag drive thrill ride, that used mag brakes too.  It accelerated you up to 100mph then let gravity burn off the speed as it went up vertical.  So it rolls back towards the start at a high rate of speed, then mag brakes kick on.  Except when I rode it with my wife and another couple, we shot backwards at 80mph through the emergency brake failure door in the back of the boarding area building.  The brakes had "hit" for a split second then released as we entered the boarding area.  My wife and her girlfriend came unglued, but my buddy John and I said to the operator "You screwed that ride up!  We want to go again!" The brakes were smooth and accurate the second attempt (without my wife and her friend of course).

The system is based on permanent magnets and requires no external power source. The link below is to a gallery with a good photo of the system.

http://www.landspeed.com/photo%20gallery/08emds.html

The black disk in the photo contains a ring of magnets that are pushed close to the brake disk when wheel braking is applied.

The heat goes into a big mass of metal, the aluminum brake disk, that other than some possible air cooling is not actively cooled.

I have often wondered whether this technology might also have applications in clutches.

[Glen]

Jon, I think he has you on his ignore button.