Jato Jet Unit

["Ben J Catlin" <87820@ef.ev.maricopa.edu>]

Entry   : 122 (490 words)
Author  : Amira/Rose <162952>
Subject : hahahha
Written : 02/20/97.01:26pm


>	You may know about the Darwin Award's. It's an annual honor given
>to the person who did the gene pool the biggest  service by killing
>themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. Last year's winner
>was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on
>top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.
>	And this year's nominee is:  The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon
>a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above
>the road at th apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an
>airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at
>the scene. The lab filially figured out what happened.
>	It seems that a person had somehow got a hold of a JATO unit (
>jet assisted take off - actually a solid fuel rocket ) that is used to
>give heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from
>short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and
>found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit
>to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO.
>	The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of
>the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately
>four miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent
>scorched and melted asphalt at that location.
>	The JATO, if operated properly, would have reached maximum thrust
>within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well inn excess of
>350 mph and continuing at a full power for an additional 20-25 seconds.
>	The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced
>G- forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full
>afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the
>remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight
>highway for about 2.5 miles ( 15-20 sec )before the driver applied and
>completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires, and leaving thick
>rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an
>additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125
>ft., leaving a blackened crater 3 ft. deep in the rock.
>	Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small
>fragments of bone, teeth,and hair were extracted from the crater and 
>fingernail and bone shards were removed from the  piece of debris
>believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.
>	Epilogue: It has been calculated that this human projectile
>nearly reached Mach 1 after becoming airborne and first attaining a
>ground speed of approximately 420 mph.
>	Ahh, the human folly. Just when you think you've heard it all.
>The really sad part is that, sooner or later, someone will top this
>feat.
>