Author Topic: Rocket Cars  (Read 49915 times)

Offline DonPMitchell

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Re: Rocket Cars
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2008, 01:34:46 AM »
Yes, I got it before, but he said something that boiled it down to a sound bite.

Now if you mounted rocket engines tangentially on a wheel, and let it spin at the exhaust velocity, you'd have a very efficient engine.  But a supersonic aeolipile would be an engineering nightmare.
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Offline ijuin

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Re: Rocket Cars
« Reply #16 on: July 06, 2008, 12:34:14 AM »
The obvious problem that I see in the rocket-engines-on-a-wheel setup is that it would be spinning through its own exhaust plumes--which means more friction, vortices, etc.

The second problem would be that you have flames spinning all over the place, so you do NOT want to approach the wheel--plus anything that is within a couple dozen meters of it will need to be flame-resistant.

In all, it's probably more useful to turn the whole thing inside out and use a turbine.

Offline DonPMitchell

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Re: Rocket Cars
« Reply #17 on: July 06, 2008, 08:24:13 AM »
Yes, it was just a thought experiment.  And an excuse to say "supersonic aeolipile".  A turbine is the right thing to do, and that is where the de Laval nozzle was invented originally, for steam turbines.
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Offline Johno

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Re: Rocket Cars
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2008, 12:02:14 PM »
If you want to check out the pitfalls of this particular configuration, it may be worth your while checking out the story of a remarkable British "secret" weapon of WW2 - the Great Panjandrum!

Funny story . . :)