Malcolm,
Luck has it that I have just won the bidding for Holthusens book on
Ebay. It should be in the mail soon so I can check out that picture you
are referring to. Single wheeltrack. Sounds scary. However, at least
they were the first unicycle to go over 600 mph. Lets see anyone better
that.
Honestly, I am interested in how the aerodynamics in this would work
out. Also in relation to the people of North American Eagle trying to
break the current ThrustSSC record with their converted plane. The thing
I am wondering about is whether the characteristics of the air at that
high speed would change, or whether the forces are just so much greater
that anyone making an attempt at those speeds would have to account for
them in a different way. ThrustSSC was close to the ground. This in
'normal' conditions would make for the car to be sucked to the ground by
the air passing underneath it. However, could it be the case that the
space left by the car would be too small resulting in the force cutting
up the ground as happened with ThrustSSC. If that would be the case then
a vehicle running up higher would be safer in relation to the ground,
but run a greater risk to be launched. A rocket shape might take care of
that... But this all is just reasoning by the little information I have
and I am sure that, if asked, Ron Ayers would have much more educated
ideas.
Arne
>Arne - according to Ron Ayers, the aerodynamics at sub sonic to
transient speeds performed as
>would be predicted and the struts on the Budweiser vehicle created the
lift to cause the
>unicycle front wheel running at somewhere about Mach 0.9. There were
claims of 'potmarks'
>ahead of the wheel tracks but no other surface damage after the
Budweiser finished its run.
>Only the single wheel track for many yards! No alteration to the track
surface under the car
>has ever been reported in the texts I have seen. There is a photo in
Houlthusens books of the
>vehicle with its rear wheels off the ground in a swirling cloud of
dust. No shock waves
>visible in the lighting of the picture.
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