Craig Breedlove's last engine... in Jet City, Canada

The J79 engine used in Craig Breedlove's last car, the Sonic Arrow, is about to be resurrected into an industrial power unit.
It will live long and prosper !

Not a podracer, but a real land speed racer...

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• LM1500
• turbine
• jet
• power
• J79
• fuel
• throttle
• gas
• engine
• propane
• response
• heat
• exhaust
• stator
• rotor
• airflow
• control
• generation
• compressor
• pipeline
• BCIT
• test
• blade
• GE
• intake
• S&S
• FSJ
• LSR
• world
• land
• speed
• record

[sanfranciscobay]

Continued:

The first run of the vehicle in October 28, 1996 in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada ended in a crash at around 675 mph. In 1997 the vehicle badly damaged the engine on an early run.

In late 2006 Breedlove sold the car to Steve Fossett who was to make an attempt on the land speed record in 2007, marking the end of an era of land speed record breaking. Fossett died in a plane crash in 2007.

[AgentJayZ]

@sanfranciscobay Yes, you are totally correct, and these are indeed the compressor cases of that engine. There were a couple of engines for use in that car.

We built them.

Burning gasoline does not make more power, but is probably better for sponsorship money.

The modifications required to switch from Jet fuel to gasoline involves adjusting the specific gravity compensator on the fuel control. Just a little tweak.

[AgentJayZ]

@sanfranciscobay ... Depends how you define an era. Right now the LSR record is held by Thrust SSC, a British car using two RR Spey engines... but the North American Eagle is still gunning for a shot, and they are using a J79 engine with an afterburner.

It's not time yet to close the book on an American team using an American engine to regain the world land speed record!

[jdmk20aek]

AgentJayZ has the best vids ever i actually learn when i watch !!!!

[AgentJayZ]

@jdmk20aek Thanks. I want to share the real hands on experience of working with jets.

I am always trying to do a better job of it.

Feel free to suggest bits or parts you want to see covered in more detail.

[mytmousemalibu]

thats a shame! That needs to be saved!

[AgentJayZ]

@mytmousemalibu It will be saved! This thing ran a few hours in his last car, and never set any records. It will run for tens of thousands of hours at a location in Los Angeles, USA. It will be well taken care of.

The fate of the engines in Craig's other cars... the ones that set the land speed records... I don't know what happened to them.

[geonerd]

As near as I can tell, SOA and Sonic Arrow are one and the same. Fosset renamed the car 'SA' after purchase.

What IS a shame is that the car has obviously been at least partially disassembled. I'd always wondered what became of it. Hopefully the chassis is intact and just waiting for some rich, crazy person to acquire it.

[sanfranciscobay]

@AgentJayZ To see a video of Craigs last car called the Spirit of America, which I assume your motor is, go to the youtube search box and type in:

Craig Breedlove, Moeller's Sky Cars CarCrazyCentral

and fast forward to 11:15. There you can see the car and the motor installed and running. Kind of cool.

[sanfranciscobay]

At 0:03 they mention Craig Breedloves last engine from Sonic Arrow. His last car was the Spirit of America.

From Wikipedia:

Breedlove began work on a new Spirit in 1992, eventually named Spirit of America Formula Shell LSRV. The engine is the same as in the second Spirit, a J79, but it is modified to burn unleaded gasoline and generates a maximum thrust of 22,650 lbf

[mYOzZyKaT]

this is just amazing...the wonder of Youtube is finding some completely rare and unique like these videos about jet engines and getting a tiny look into a world you normally do not see....jets...gotta love em...