JATO Car Embedded in Cliff
JATO Car Embedded in Cliff
Claim: The remains of a smoldering JATO-equipped Chevrolet Impala were found embedded in the side of a cliff in the Arizona desert.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1995]
The Arizona Highway Patrol were mystified when they came upon a pile of smoldering wreckage embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The metal debris resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it turned out to be the vaporized remains of an automobile. The make of the vehicle was unidentifiable at the scene.
The folks in the lab eventually figured out what it was, and pieced together the events that led up to its demise.
It seems that a former Air Force sergeant had somehow got hold of a JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) unit. JATO units are solid fuel rockets used to give intense military transport airplanes an extra thrust for take-off from brief airfields.
Dried desert lakebeds are the location of choice for violating the world ground vehicle speed record. The sergeant took the JATO unit into the Arizona desert and found a long, straight open up of road. He fastened the JATO unit to his car, hopped in, accelerated to a high speed, and fired off the rocket. The facts, as best as could be determined, are as goes after:
The operator was driving a one thousand nine hundred sixty seven Chevy Impala. He ignited the JATO unit approximately Three.9 miles from the crash site. This was established by the location of a prominently scorched and melted unclothe of asphalt. The vehicle quickly reached a speed of inbetween two hundred fifty and three hundred mph and continued at that speed, under total power, for an extra 20-25 seconds. The soon-to-be pilot experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under total afterburners.
The Chevy remained on the straight highway for approximately Two.6 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied the brakes, fully melting them, sucking the tires, and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface. The vehicle then became airborne for an extra 1.Trio miles, impacted the cliff face at a height of one hundred twenty five feet, and left a blackened crater three feet deep in the rock.
Most of the driver’s remains were not recovered; however, petite fragments of bone, teeth, and hair were extracted from the crater, and fingernail and bone shards were eliminated from a lump of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.
Origins: Of all the crazy Internet stories, this has to be the one fellas love the most. There’s something about cars and solid rocket fuel engines that draws them to this tale like glad moths to an
unforgiving flame. Maybe it’s the Wile E. Coyote-ness of it all, the “so real you can almost touch it” mental photo of a smoldering wreck sticking out of a cliff face. Perhaps it’s the vicarious enjoyment of a Tim Allen-ish “More Power!” fantasy carried to its fatal yet hilarious conclusion. Or maybe it’s a plain matter of cars and the fellows who love them, the eternal love affair.
Whatever. The boys love it, and that’s all that matters.
This tale of vehicular velocity ferocity has been popular among servicemen since the late 1970s. In those early word-of-mouth versions, the JATO was taken from a cargo plane or out of a warehouse on base, thereby answering a key question left up in the air in later versions: Where did the intrepid lad obtain the engine?
The story is even older than that. One of our readers says he heard it in one thousand nine hundred sixty one or 1962. In that version, two JATO units mounted as “lakers” (harass pipes) on a one thousand nine hundred forty Ford were fired on Bayshore freeway while attempting to outrun the California Highway Patrol. The car was last seen going end over end across San Francisco bay. Another reader heard it in one thousand nine hundred sixty four while stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. In that version, the unmanned JATO’d car went airborne and smashed into a tree, ruining both car and plant.
The version we now know and love (accomplish with puzzled police and the smoldering wreck of what’s left of a car impacted into the face of a cliff), began making the cyberspatial rounds in 1990. In one thousand nine hundred ninety two the incident was said to have happened in Fresh Mexico, with the car being a Plymouth Road Runner. By one thousand nine hundred ninety four the car had transformed itself into a Chevrolet Impala, but now the accident’s venue was California. (See how these things mutate over time?)
1995 spotted this legend just about take over the Internet as it was flashed from e-mail to e-mail as “this year’s Darwin Award winner.” It’s this version which is still in circulation today, the car frozen in time as a Chevy Impala, the location given as somewhere in Arizona.
As it appeared in 1995:
“Darwin award” Nominee: You all know about the Darwin awards – it’s an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the fattest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way.
Last year’s winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke(tm) machine, which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to peak a free soda out of it.
And for this year’s nominee, the story is:
The Arizona (U.S.) Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road, on the outside of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The boys in the lab eventually figured out what it was, and what had happened.
It seems that a stud had somehow got hold of a JATO unit, (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid-fuel rocket) that is used to give mighty military transport planes an extra `push’ for taking off from brief airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert, and found a long, straight open up of road. Then he fastened the JATO unit to his car, hopped in, got up some speed, and fired off the JATO!!
Best as they could determine, he was doing somewhere inbetween two hundred fifty and three hundred mph (350-420kph) when he came to that curve …
The brakes were totally burned away, evidently from attempting to slow the car.
TODAY’S LESSON: Solid-fuel rockets don’t have an ‘off’ switch . . .
Nor, so it seems, do good stories. A spokesman of the Arizona Department of Public Safety stated in a one thousand nine hundred ninety six newspaper article the JATO story wasn’t true however they continued to get asked about it. “We get a call on that about every ninety days,” said Dave Myers. “It keeps us on the map.”
are two fatal problems with the JATO story. Very first, anybody who understood the extreme coerces involved well enough to link a JATO unit to a car so that it would keep the car going in a straight line (rather than instantaneously spinning around) would most likely know better than to do it in the very first place. 2nd, the Arizona Highway Patrol has a phone number. A call to them will confirm they’ve both heard the story and no, it’s not true.
However the legend of the smoldering Chevy smashed into a cliff face is unspoiled fabrication, JATO engines have been mounted on cars on a duo of occasions. As reported in Motor Trend in 1957, Dodge took a brand-new car out to El Mirage dry lake bed in California, liquidated the gas tank, and mounted a JATO unit in its place. (The intent was to test the car’s brakes and to film the event for TV commercials.) The car went one hundred forty mph.
Barbara “cliff unhanger” Mikkelson
Last updated: twelve November 2006
Sources:
Fresh York: W. W. Norton, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04734-2 (p. 93).
England, Terry. “L.A. Man Joins the Jet Set – At two hundred Miles an Hour.”
Los Alamos Monitor. twenty seven June one thousand nine hundred eighty two (p. A1).
Matheny, Dave and H.J. Cummins. “For Your Information; Death of an Urban Legend.”
[Minneapolis] Starlet Tribune. eighteen November one thousand nine hundred ninety six (p. E1).
Thompson, Tracy. “Tall Tales Echoing Down the Info Superhighway.”
International Herald Tribune. twenty two February 1996.
Also told in:
London: Carlton, 1999. ISBN 1-85868-558-3. (p. 238).
Little Rock: August House, 1999. ISBN 0-87483-525-9 (p. 22).
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