(via t-s-k-b)

What appears, at first glance, to be an airplane without wings, is, in reality, a road vehicle driven by a motorcycle engine and propeller. Airplane parts have been used for nearly all of the construction, and on smooth roads the little machine is capable of good speed. Braking is accomplished through two hardwood reels that are pressed against the two rear wheels. The construction, while light, is strong, and the machine has stood severe tests over rough country roads.

http://thiscircularparade.com/2012/02/17/aeromobile-zips-along-courtesy-of-a-motorcycle-engine/

livelymorgue:

From the Mid-Week Pictorial, this experimental “Zeppelin on wheels” (or Schienenzeppelin) arrived at a station in Hanover, Germany. It went into service in 1931 and that June set a railway speed record. Safety and reliability concerns prevented it from being mass-produced, however. It was dismantled in 1939. Photo: The New York Times

(via pricklylegs)

1934 Prop Car, Long Island NY.

oldgadget.ru

(via alternatehistoryvehicles)

(via alternatehistoryvehicles)

Schienenzeppelin

http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/1356454/Schienenzeppelin_-el-Zeppelin-sobre-rieles.html

The Aerowagon or aeromotowagon (Russian: Аэроваго́н, аэродрези́на) was an experimental high-speed railcar fitted with an aircraft engine and propeller traction invented by Valerian Abakovsky, a Russian engineer and communist from Latvia. It was originally intended to carry Soviet officials.

On 24 July 1921, a group of communists led by Fyodor Sergeyev took the Aerowagon from Moscow to the Tula collieries to test it. Abakovsky was also on board. Although they successfully arrived in Tula, on the return route to Moscow the Aerowagon derailed at high speed, killing everyone on board. The following people died in the accident:

• John Freeman

• Oskar Heilbrich

• John William Hewlett

• Fyodor Sergeyev (Artyom)

• Otto Strupat

• Abakovsky himself, at the age of 25.

All six were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Abakovsky is on the List of Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions

This is the Schienenzeppelin (“Rail dirigible”).

The railcar was built at the beginning of 1930 in the Hannover-Leinhausen works of the German Imperial Railway “Deutsche Reichsbahn” company. As originally built it had two conjoined BMW IV 6-cylinder petrol aircraft engines (later a single BMW VI 12-cylinder of 600 horsepower (450 kW)) driving a four-bladed (later two-bladed), fixed pitch ash propeller. The driveshaft was raised 7 degrees above the horizontal to give the vehicle some downwards thrust. The body of the Schienenzeppelin was streamlined, having some resemblance to the era’s popular Zeppelinairships, and it was built of aluminum in aircraft style to reduce weight. The railcar could carry up to 40 passengers; its interior was spartan and designed in Bauhaus-style.

On 10 May 1931, the Schienenzeppelin exceeded a speed of 200 km/h (120 mph) for the first time.  On 21 June 1931, it set a new world railway speed record of 230.2 km/h (143.0 mph) on the Berlin–Hamburg line between Karstädt and Dergenthin, which was not surpassed by any other rail vehicle until 1954. The railcar still holds the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle. 

The failure of Schienenzeppelin has been attributed to everything from the dangers of using an open propeller in crowded railway stations to fierce competition between Kruckenberg’s company and the Deutsche Reichsbahn’s separate efforts to build high-speed railcars.

One disadvantage of the rail zeppelin was the inherent difficulty of pulling additional wagons to form a train, because of its construction. Furthermore, the vehicle could not use its propeller to climb steep gradients, as the flow would separate when full power was applied. Thus an additional means of propulsion was needed for such circumstances.

 in 1939 the rail zeppelin was finally dismantled because its material was needed by the German army.

(Source: prolidepp, via t-s-k-b)

xplanes:

While we wait for a record breaker, another (potential) one caught my eye the other day:

“An amateur aircraft designer can tailor a plane to fit his or her precise requirements, no matter how outlandish. Take David Rose. Inside his hangar at Montgomery Field in San Diego, this former airline pilot is building a machine that he hopes will earn him aeronautical immortality.

If all goes according to plan, a thunderously overpowered racing machine called RP-4 will reach a straight and level speed in excess of 528.3 mph and become the world’s fastest piston-driven plane. The 22-year-old record is held by a modified World War II—era Grumman F8F Bearcat.”

from Popular Mechanics, 12/10/2011. I cannot find any update on the status of this aircraft since then.

(bottom photograph by Jake Stangel. Other great ones from the same shoot can be found here.)

(via maxforcepatrol)