A Rocket Bike

Monday, January 18, 2010


Tim Picken, president of rocket-design firm Orion Propulsion, together with fellow speed enthusiast Glenn May, created the first rocket bike by bolting a 35-pound thrust rocket engine to an ordinary bike. The project's speed didn't satisfy Picken so he tried attaching a 200 pound thrust engine to a new bike. This engine speed is capable of blasting him from 0 to 60 miles an hour in five seconds-fast enough to beat a Porcshe in a drag race.

In place of synthetic rubber fuel, however, the bike uses ordinary roofing tar. To ignite it, Picken placed a model-rocket motor inside the engine. A button on the handle bar fires the model rocket motor which in turn sets off Picken's larger motor by lighting the roofing tar fuel. Picken's rocket bike employs the same hybrid rocket technology as the sub-orbital space plane Spaceship One, whose propulsion system he has also helped in designing.


How it works:


* A toggle switches on the battery pack which arms the ignition system.

* The left thumb button sends power from the battery pack to an igniter on a model rocket motor inside the rocket engine. This vaporizes the roofing tar fuel so it can burn.

* The right thumb button keeps nitrous oxide flowing and the rocket hit as long it is pushed.

* The left brake lever regulates the flow of nitrate and throttles the rocket.



Source: Science Discoverer Vol. XII

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