In 1946 the United States had many accidents. Cars do not even have seat belts, not even talk of modern security systems. A crash at 50 km / h was likely to cause serious injury to occupants of the car, even death. Therefore, some pioneers tried to design picturesque road safety solutions. One was riding Rockets in our car, running counter to the sense to help Emergency Brake .
In 1946, the cars were heavy and had effective drum brakes very little.
looks like a contrived by ACME solution, but it really was the brainchild of Allegany Ballistics Laboratory, military research center that came to produce and test several prototypes of this technology. The idea was simple: they settled two rockets in the direction opposite to the motion of the car and inclined toward the ground . In a situation of extreme emergency braking pressure on the brake pedal, the system is activated by an electric power, and the rockets would greatly reduce the braking distance.
The ABS was a dream back then – it was not mandatory in Europe until 2001 -. And braking systems of a normal car they were highly ineffective American cars were heavy, and they had make do with drum brakes small size . A car took the time to stop from 96 km / h about 50 meters in ideal conditions. A modern car today, slows in just over 30 meters from 120 km / h. In conditions of low grip, the absent ABS further complicated matters.
The rockets would have mounted on the hood of the car, pointing down to stop faster.
These rockets promised to halve the stopping distance from 60 mph . In about 25 meters they were able to stop a car from the 96 km / h. In addition to its own thrust, they are creating more pressure on the tires, increasing the effectiveness of conventional vehicle brakes. Allegany laboratory built a prototype based on a Jeep Willys – usual surplus of war – and managed to stop from 96 km / h in just over 18 meters
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A value today would be exceptional, but that submitted to all car and occupants to tremendous G forces . The system is planned to produce in mass would be mounted on the hood of the car, and would be connected to the address, so that it could rule the car when turning the steering wheel. A forerunner detail systems ABS . But it is easy to see that it was not an ideal system. In addition to refuel kerosene whenever the system operated, had a high fire risk accident.
The system was expensive and although its effectiveness was demonstrated, it was thought a good idea not to install a flammable fuel tank next to the car engine. It would have been an expensive extra, at a time when style was more important than safety.
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Source: ModernMecanix
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