''Blue Flame'' is a

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

-powered

land speed racing Land speed racing is a form of motorsport. Land speed racing is best known for the efforts to break the absolute land speed record, but it is not limited to specialist vehicles. A record is defined as the speed over a course of fixed length, avera ...

vehicle that was driven by

Gary Gabelich Gary Gabelich ( Croatian ''Gabelić''; August 29, 1940 – January 26, 1984) was an American motorsport driver who set the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Land Speed Record (LSR) with the rocket car Blue Flame on October 23, 1970, ...

and achieved a world

land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

on October 23, 1970. The vehicle set the

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for the flying mile at and the flying kilometer at . Blue Flame's world records have since been broken.

Design and construction

''Blue Flame'' was constructed in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

Reaction Dynamics Reaction dynamics is a field within physical chemistry, studying why chemical reactions occur, how to predict their behavior, and how to control them. It is closely related to chemical kinetics, but is concerned with individual chemical events on ...

, a company formed by Pete Farnsworth, Ray Dausman and Dick Keller, who had developed the first

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3%� ...

rocket dragster A rocket car is a land vehicle propelled by a rocket engine. A rocket dragster is a rocket car used for competing in drag racing, and this type holds the unofficial world record for the 1/4 mile. Fritz von Opel was instrumental in popularizing ...

, called the X-1 and driven by Chuck Suba. The car used a combination of

high-test peroxide High-test peroxide (HTP) is a highly concentrated (85 to 98%) solution of hydrogen peroxide, with the remainder consisting predominantly of water. In contact with a catalyst, it decomposes into a high-temperature mixture of steam and oxygen, with n ...

and

liquified natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

(LNG), pressurized by helium gas. The effort was sponsored by the

American Gas Association The American Gas Association (AGA) is an American trade organization founded in 1918 representing and advocating on behalf of local energy companies that deliver natural gas throughout the United States. History The American Gas Association forme ...

, with technical assistance from the

Institute of Gas Technology The Gas Technology Institute is an American non-profit research and development organization which develops, demonstrates, and licenses new energy technologies for private and public clients, with a particular focus on the natural gas industry. G ...

Des Plaines, IL Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 60,675. The city is a suburb of Chicago and is located just north of O'Hare International Airport. It is situated on and is named after the ...

. The engine was designed by Reaction Dynamics and some of the components were manufactured by Galaxy Manufacturing of

Tonawanda, New York Tonawanda (formally ''City of Tonawanda'') is a city in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,130 at the 2010 census. It is at the northern edge of Erie County, south across the Erie Canal (Tonawanda Creek) from North Ton ...

. ''Blue Flame''s engine is a regeneratively cooled variable thrust liquid-propellent engine. It can operate on either a single- or dual-propellant basis. In operation, it permits natural gas use as a liquid, gas, or both with a two-stage combustion start. The oxidizer flow is established first, then LNG enters a heat exchanger where it vaporizes and is brought to combustion temperature. The gas is then injected into the combustion chamber with the oxygen provided by the hydrogen peroxide. A stable flame front is established and the remaining

(LNG) is injected to bring the engine to full power. Nominal engine running time was 20 seconds at full thrust of , the equivalent of . Keller stated the

Goodyear Tire Company The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, S ...

restricted their top speed to . Reaction Dynamics subsequently modified the LNG flow in the two-stage injector system to almost halve the maximum thrust. The actual thrust during the record runs was between quivalent of and . ''Blue Flame''s record runs involved accelerating continuously to the mile midpoint, then coasting through the mile. The peak speed, approximately , was reached at that point and then the vehicle decelerated the rest of the way. The kilometer speed trap was biased towards one end of the mile, resulting in the higher speed. ''Blue Flame'' uses an aluminum semi-

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

with welded tubular structure in the nose section and an aluminum "skin." The vehicle is long, high to the top of the tail fin, and wide, with a

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

of . It has an empty weight of and is approximately fully fueled and loaded.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, ...

designed 8:00-25 tires for the vehicle, with an outside diameter of and smooth tread surface to help prevent heat buildup, filled with

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

gas at .

Land speed record

On 23 October 1970 at Bonneville,

drove ''Blue Flame'' to a new record of for the flying mile, for the flying kilometre.

Legacy

''Blue Flame'' is now on permanent exhibition at the '' Auto and Technik Museum Sinsheim'' in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

External links

Break the Record - Official Blue Flame LSR video

Speedquest - The Blue Flame movie from Dick Keller's personal collection that he released into the public domain in 2011

Design and construction

Land speed record

Legacy

See also

References

External links

Further reading