I read about the accident, added extra jet fuel at the last minute, went 295 ft on a planned 200 ft jump. Just like Dave, he kept wanting to exceed his last record.
Well that’s pretty sad ......... i’m not a smart man, but I wouldn’t think that it would’ve been too hard to compute how much fuel should have been in the rocket ..............In hindsight a second opinion would’ve been a good thing......Sadder yet........ how he was a prisoner to Notoriety
I just love how back in the day the stunt drivers took whatever car was handy and did this kind of stuff with them. Now days drivers get special made cars that have wings that are adjustable in flight to help keep the car straight and level in flight.
I thought he did pretty good for a redneck rocket engine guy. Hard to do practice runs with that jet engine on those sites and tune up your jump? And this was the 70’s and early 80’s. Going down a straight track is a whole different game than figuring how to jump a gap fairly precisely for the takeoff and landing. Not much room for error, as he found out.