| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front |
| Holloman Air Force Base beats own rail vehicle speed record |
| 2003-05-07 |
| A bit of railnews that I think is of interest to the Rantburg audience. Edited for brevity. Holloman Air Force Base's test track in New Mexico bested its own 21-year-old world land-speed record for a rail vehicle early Wednesday. The test, which simulates a warhead, launched a 192-pound payload to evaluate a new system on the test track. An upgrade began in 1997 converted the monorail sled, which held the previous speed records, to a double, narrow-gauge track with the rails 26 inches apart. Preliminary numbers calculated a speed of Mach 8.6, equal to about 6,400 mph or 9,410 feet per second, said Lt. Col. James Jolliffe, 846th Test Squadron commander. The previous record was Mach 8, or 6,122 mph, set on Oct05, 1982. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #14 And in a related development, San Jose's light rail system set a new speed record of 15 MPH, slowest among comparable systems nationwide. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-05-07 17:31:47 |
| #13 A friend of mine (next door neighbor in base housing at Holloman) volunteered to ride the sled during some of the tests in the late 1960's. The military ended up medically retiring him because of the problems he developed from the stress. There aren't many people that can say they've travelled at Mach 6 ON THE GROUND! |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-07 17:19:21 |
| #12 I give up. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-07 16:34:09 |
| #11 I believe that's "D'oh," not "Doh," Mike. Helping others to help themselves is just one of our many goals here at Rantburg. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1387335.stm |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-05-07 15:47:25 |
| #10 âSunnie donât go away Iâm here all alone Youâre daddyâs a sailor He never comes home Nights are so long Silence is strong Iâm feeling so tired Not all that strong..â |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-05-07 15:25:51 |
| #9 Don't make us sic Sunnie on your ass, Mike. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-05-07 15:22:28 |
| #8 Having a ruff day, Mike? |
| Posted by: Raj 2003-05-07 15:16:19 |
| #7 Mike, buddy, pal... you gotta stop drinking and typing! Help us to help you! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-07 14:30:13 |
| #6 kepp, Doesn't that figure. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-07 14:24:51 |
| #5 Since I can't spell, I think I'll kepp my stupid comments to myself. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-07 14:18:21 |
| #4 I like to see the Jamaican Bobsled Team take that sled for a ride. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-07 14:17:40 |
| #3 Per How Stuff Works, a blink is about a decisecond or 0.1 seconds in duration, so that sled could be 941 ft. away by the time you open your eyes... I believe you, Steve! |
| Posted by: Dar 2003-05-07 14:11:01 |
| #2 Cool! I was stationed there 7 years ago and got to watch a few sled runs. Blink and you miss them going by. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-05-07 14:04:25 |
| #1 Doh! I forgot the question mark. GGGODDDDDDDAMMMNNNITT! |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-05-07 15:04:49 |