Faster than a Blue Flame…I don’t think soI was in a meeting the other day and Tom Moskitis started talking about the Blue Flame. He mentioned that Dick Keller, one of the guys at Reaction Dynamics that built the car, was thinking about doing a book on it. I decided to expand my education on the car.
The Blue Flame set the land speed record of 630.478 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on October 28, 1970. The driver was Gary Gabelich and the record lasted for 13 years until it was broken by Thrust 2. The current record is more than 760 mph and held by Thrust SSC. The engine permitted natural gas use as a liquid or gas or both with a two-stage combustion start. Pretty impressive stuff.
During my brief time at AGA, I’ve noticed a ton of stories about natural gas cars and their benefits. UPS started using natural gas powered trucks as far back as 1989 and was using more than 1000 vehicles at its peak. I just saw this story about Wal-Mart experimented with different alternative fuel trucks for its fleet including natural gas.
Here are a bunch of links to other sites about natural gas vehicles.
- The Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
- The International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles
- Alternative Fuels & Advanced Vehicles Data Center (from the U.S. Department of Energy).
And if you have a car that runs on natural gas, I’d love to hear about it. Pics are great, especially if you’ve done some customization.
Sorry to burst your bubble Mr. Sayger – the World Land Speed Record of 630.388 miles per hour was set on October 23, 1970 by The Blue Flame running on LNG fuel and 94% concentration H2O2 as the oxidizer.
Because the Goodyear Tire Company restricted our top speed to 700mph, we restricted the LNG flow in the 2-stage LNG injector system to almost halve our maximum thrust. Even so, we reached a peak speed of 650 to 660mph in the middle of the timed distance, then coasted through – as per our plan. We could not have set the record on H2O2 alone.
Due to a problem in the rocket motor we had to switch from the gaseous injector system to the liquid natural gas injector system while on the salt flats. That required re-calibration of the LNG flow, which was difficult under field conditions. There was a real nice diamond shock wave pattern in the exhaust once we got everything tuned up.
It is my understanding that the Blue Flame achieved its record setting speeds without the aid of LNG. Problems with the intake valve actually reduced the potential thrust and the vehicle achieved this record-setting speed solely based on the hydrogen-peroxide fuel that it was originally outfitted for.
It is speculated that had the LNG unit been fixed, speeds could have achieved over 1,000 mph even back then. (Granted the car might have self destructed from external forces prior to reaching this speed).
My research is limited, and obviously AGA wants to continue its “spin” that LNG was the deciding factor in the record.
Am I way off base here, or have others heard similiar stories about the record setting Blue Flame?