Things have come a long way since the 200mph Gee whiz tests. The Holloman High Speed Test Track carried out a missile test on a sled track that reached 6400mph, crossing 3 miles on 6 seconds and breaking a 20 year old world speed record.
Rocket Sleds
If you thought the Bullet train was the fastest thing on rails, you would be wrong - more than 6000 miles per hour wrong. Rocket sled test tracks were originally designed for the V2 in WWII and can reach up to 6400 mph.
They were made famous in the 50s when Lt. Col John Paul volunteered himself to test a 200mph track designed for crash test dummies, called the Gee Whiz. The test was intended to show the effects of deceleration in a plane crash, where it was assumed that nobody could survive more than 18G. Strapp survived an unbelievable 35G.
However, the lasting legacy of the Gee Whiz test is Murphy’s Law, coined after a real engineer called Murphy who worked briefly at Edwards Air Force Base on the test track.
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This picture shows a Phantom jet with engines, the instant before it slammed into 15 feet of reinforced concrete at nearly 500 miles an hour. Click through if you want to see a video of what happens next.
Col. John Paul Stapp aboard the Gee Whiz rocket sled at<p />Edwards Air Force Base. The origin of the term Murphys Law comes from an engineer of the same name who worked on the Rocket Sled program. Click through for details.
A good demonstration of extreme flash photography, The sled is traveling at 4800 ft/s which is approximately 3300 mph.
A bizarre looking setup from Sandia Labs test track, that is reminiscent of 50s TV sci-fi, Flash Gordon style.
John Paul Stapp riding the rocket sled that was only intended for crash test dummies to prove that people couldnt withstand deceleration beyond 18G. Stapp tested it to 35G.
A relic from the past on display in Louisiana. These mockups consisted of an aircraft fuselage, fitted on rails and powered by rockets, in order to test ejection systems.
Sonic Wind No. 1, the rocket sled ridden by John Paul Stapp in the 1950s is now on display at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, Alamogordo, New Mexico.
