The oiled flash - Fritz von Opel's experiments with rocket vehicles
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Summary
In 1928, Fritz von Opel made several attempts to break the then current speed record of 333 km/h with rocket-powered automobiles and rail vehicles. Although this did not happen, the stories surrounding it are still worth reading. This report summarizes the turbulent year 1928 and shows the record-breaking vehicles in historical photographs.
This article contains the following chapters
- Difficult beginnings
- Without incident
- In three stages
- Record missed
- Suicides?
Estimated reading time: 4min
Preview (beginning of the article)
Fritz von Opel was not wrongly nicknamed "Rocket Fritz". He had carried out record-breaking drives with rocket cars in pre-war times. In 1968, a reconstructed Opel rocket car, called RAK II, was transferred to the German Museum in Munich. On this occasion, Fritz von Opel gave a lecture on the subject of rocket cars and described the history of the development of those Opel test vehicles. In the meantime, rocket-powered automobiles have become rather quiet again. The Japanese conducted a few experiments, but soon gave up on them again. Is a rocket car too dangerous? Mistrust and a lack of courage, Fritz von Opel recalled, almost caused the company that the young engineer had set his mind to fail back in the 1920s. "I had written to all the leading companies asking for their support in procuring large rockets. But I only received one positive response, namely from Friedrich Wilhelm Sander from Bremerhaven, whose company Cordes Nachfolger had been manufacturing distress rockets for 60 years."
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