It's that feeling you get when several pieces of a puzzle fit together and you finally get to see a full picture of what were fragments just moments before. Such it was with the mystery of "The American Meteor". In this case four different pieces now paint a picture of one of Alex Tremulis' most ambitious projects to put Ab Jenkins in the driver's seat of the most advanced rocket-boosted jet car in an attempt to claim the title as the "Fastest Man in the World". There were four pieces that made up the mystery: 1) A newspaper article from 1946 about Jenkins, Tremulis and a jet car; 2) A story from Alex Tremulis about Jenkins and a jet car; 3) A magazine article from 1953 submitted by writer Karl Ludvigsen to the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg newsletter in 1969; and 4) Two vintage photographs of seemingly unrelated vehicles that Ab Jenkins was somehow involved with posted on a land speed vehicle website. Until now, all appeared to be unrelated bits of information. But here's how they all described the same Tremulis-Jenkins land speed record project at least a decade before anyone else even thought to put a jet car on the Bonneville Salt Flats...
It's no surprise that Ab Jenkins, who held so many of the world's speed records for endurance runs, would be frustrated at never having held the absolute speed record for which he was so instrumental in helping others set at the Bonneville Salt Flats. It would be Alex Tremulis who would be the one to see that his old friend from his days at Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg would get a shot at being the world's fastest. The full story on how Tremulis and Jenkins teamed up at the 1946 Indianapolis 500 race can be found here. The following is more focused on the jet car attempt that came out of these efforts, but the Novi-powered streamliner designed to break Rudi Caracciola's 268mph record from 1938 is intertwined with the jet car, so first a brief review.
Alex Tremulis' 1946 design for the Novi streamliner for Ab Jenkins' record attempt.
TREMULIS-JENKINS NOVI-POWERED STREAMLINER
Here's how Alex Tremulis described his 1946 proposal for the Novi-powered streamliner: "Ab, in his greatest moment of frustration, asked: "Alex, What is wrong? I had my foot in the Mormon Meteor as deep as any man could go. One hour at 191 MPH and on one lap on the 10 mile circle when the oil and the grease in the axle got thin and warm I covered one lap at 196 MPH. All I needed was 4 more MPH, I would have settled for one lap at 200 MPH and forgotten about 200 MPH for one hour. I told Ab it was a question of aerodynamics. 750 HP simply wasn't enough - but don't worry about the Mormon Meteor. It is old and ancient, its streamlining belongs to the last generation. I'll give you 200 miles in the hour and then put you through the measured mile and we'll knock off Rudi Caracciola's 268 MPH in the Mercedes on the Autobahn. All I ask is that you let me streamline the vehicle with all four wheels fully enclosed. I had even incorporated the first adjustable aerodynamic wing to stabilize the C/G [center of gravity] on the 10 mile circle."
Here's how Alex Tremulis described his 1946 proposal for the Novi-powered streamliner: "Ab, in his greatest moment of frustration, asked: "Alex, What is wrong? I had my foot in the Mormon Meteor as deep as any man could go. One hour at 191 MPH and on one lap on the 10 mile circle when the oil and the grease in the axle got thin and warm I covered one lap at 196 MPH. All I needed was 4 more MPH, I would have settled for one lap at 200 MPH and forgotten about 200 MPH for one hour. I told Ab it was a question of aerodynamics. 750 HP simply wasn't enough - but don't worry about the Mormon Meteor. It is old and ancient, its streamlining belongs to the last generation. I'll give you 200 miles in the hour and then put you through the measured mile and we'll knock off Rudi Caracciola's 268 MPH in the Mercedes on the Autobahn. All I ask is that you let me streamline the vehicle with all four wheels fully enclosed. I had even incorporated the first adjustable aerodynamic wing to stabilize the C/G [center of gravity] on the 10 mile circle."
The streamlined shape of the Novi-powered land speed record car would hang in Alex Tremulis' design studio at the Tucker Corporation where it would influence the streamlined design for the Tucker '48 automobile. The second part of the project to get the absolute land speed record back in the United States would include a jet-powered car almost a year before the debut of the "Tin Goose" in June of 1947. That project became public at the 1946 Indianapolis 500.
AMERICAN METEOR JET/ROCKET LSR CAR
Here's how Tremulis described the jet car concept to Jenkins: "I told Ab if he wanted to be the fastest on earth that I would design a jet car for the record, designed around the 4000 lb thrust TG-180 gas turbine that we used on the P-80. When I first saw a print of the engine early in 1944 instead of designing an airplane around it I immediately laid out a land speed record jet car design. Ab wasn't enthusiastic at first. He really thought it best to do it with a wheel driven vehicle. He said: "How about two Curtiss Conquerers?" Not enough power. "Then how about two Allisons?" No Ab, the British will kill us with their two stage Rolls Royce supercharged job and Fred would come back to haunt us the rest of our lives if Rolls Royce ever knocked us off. It had to be an all-American project including the tires. Dunlop had the only 400 MPH capability. Our tires could be no larger O.D. than 36 inches for my design and knowing Dunlop they would probably go 48 inches or more for 600 MPH. Ab said he would look for a sponsor and not to worry about tires that Firestone could do anything in the world."
Here's how Tremulis described the jet car concept to Jenkins: "I told Ab if he wanted to be the fastest on earth that I would design a jet car for the record, designed around the 4000 lb thrust TG-180 gas turbine that we used on the P-80. When I first saw a print of the engine early in 1944 instead of designing an airplane around it I immediately laid out a land speed record jet car design. Ab wasn't enthusiastic at first. He really thought it best to do it with a wheel driven vehicle. He said: "How about two Curtiss Conquerers?" Not enough power. "Then how about two Allisons?" No Ab, the British will kill us with their two stage Rolls Royce supercharged job and Fred would come back to haunt us the rest of our lives if Rolls Royce ever knocked us off. It had to be an all-American project including the tires. Dunlop had the only 400 MPH capability. Our tires could be no larger O.D. than 36 inches for my design and knowing Dunlop they would probably go 48 inches or more for 600 MPH. Ab said he would look for a sponsor and not to worry about tires that Firestone could do anything in the world."
c. 1940's: Ab Jenkins' design for the twin Curtiss Conquerer Meteor is shown in this sketch by Rex A. Prunty, a drafting engineer for an aircraft manufacturer (according to a 1940 census).
Photo from SonicWind.com.
Photo from SonicWind.com.
The news of Alex Tremulis and Ab Jenkins' jet-powered car first appeared in 1946, shortly after the Indianapolis 500 and the drawing for the Tremulis-Jenkins Novi streamliner. It was at the invitation of Jenkins that Tremulis would meet up with Lew Welch and the crew that built the Novi-powered Indy cars for the big race. They were unprepared for the event that Tremulis actually could secure a jet powerplant from the Army.
With Tremulis still at the consulting firm of Tammen and Denison in July of 1946 (five months before Preston Tucker would hire him as Chief Stylist for the Tucker '48), the Army offered up the I-40 instead of the state-of-the-art TG-180.
As Tremulis described it: "Well, we had a press conference at Indy and the news clipping stated what we were going to do. I had sent a letter to General Le May as Lou Welch said if I could get a jet engine he would sponsor the car. As luck would have it good old Bim Wilson was his deputy. Naturally I couldn't get the TG-180 but the I-40, so what, it was only 4 more inches in diameter instead of the 36 inches I had designed for. The I-40 still had 4000 lbs thrust and who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth. A couple of calls to Washington plus an agreement with the Air Force that they would work out the air entry duct system and my agreement that we would allow for 500 lbs of AF instrumentation in order to justify the loan of the engine to the taxpayers. It looked like we would have an engine. As the engine was still restricted we would be given a wooden mockup of the engine in which to build our car and upon delivery to Wendover Air Base the engine would be installed and prepared for the Bonneville record runs upon 30 days notice. I had moved too fast for Lou Welch. Frankly I always believed that he thought that I would never be able to get an engine from the Air Force and that it was just a good publicity stunt anyway. I was embarrassed no end - having grabbed the ball and running with it and then being forced to drop it."
As Tremulis described it: "Well, we had a press conference at Indy and the news clipping stated what we were going to do. I had sent a letter to General Le May as Lou Welch said if I could get a jet engine he would sponsor the car. As luck would have it good old Bim Wilson was his deputy. Naturally I couldn't get the TG-180 but the I-40, so what, it was only 4 more inches in diameter instead of the 36 inches I had designed for. The I-40 still had 4000 lbs thrust and who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth. A couple of calls to Washington plus an agreement with the Air Force that they would work out the air entry duct system and my agreement that we would allow for 500 lbs of AF instrumentation in order to justify the loan of the engine to the taxpayers. It looked like we would have an engine. As the engine was still restricted we would be given a wooden mockup of the engine in which to build our car and upon delivery to Wendover Air Base the engine would be installed and prepared for the Bonneville record runs upon 30 days notice. I had moved too fast for Lou Welch. Frankly I always believed that he thought that I would never be able to get an engine from the Air Force and that it was just a good publicity stunt anyway. I was embarrassed no end - having grabbed the ball and running with it and then being forced to drop it."
The first images of the design for the American Meteor would finally be made 61 years ago thanks to A-C-D Club member Karl Ludvigsen, who in 1969 would post an article from 1953's Speed Age magazine about Ab Jenkins' attempt to recapture his glory by driving this jet-powered car to the absolute fastest speeds ever achieved. Here's the full article as it appeared in the April and May 1969 Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg newsletter:
SPONSORSHIP WAS NON-EXISTANT
The descriptions in the 1953 article duplicate the 1946 descriptions from the newspapers with the exception that the TG-180 powerplant had been replaced with either a J30 or J34 turbojet engine to drive the wheels. Oddly enough, seven years after first discussed as being powered by the more powerful TG-180 (alternatively known as the J35), the direct-drive J30 or J34 engines seemed to be obsolete by 1953, so possibly these potential powerplants were leftovers from earlier descriptions. After seven years, apparently there were still no sponsors willing to take on such an ambitious task, possibly not wanting to be associated with it if it were to harm the ageing national hero in any way. It's interesting to note that the US Army stepped up to loan a jet engine for the American Meteor's record attempt, just as they had offered support to Frank Lockhart and his Stutz Black Hawk back in 1927 to help with wind tunnel testing in his quest the break the land speed record. Patriotism ran high back in those days.
The descriptions in the 1953 article duplicate the 1946 descriptions from the newspapers with the exception that the TG-180 powerplant had been replaced with either a J30 or J34 turbojet engine to drive the wheels. Oddly enough, seven years after first discussed as being powered by the more powerful TG-180 (alternatively known as the J35), the direct-drive J30 or J34 engines seemed to be obsolete by 1953, so possibly these potential powerplants were leftovers from earlier descriptions. After seven years, apparently there were still no sponsors willing to take on such an ambitious task, possibly not wanting to be associated with it if it were to harm the ageing national hero in any way. It's interesting to note that the US Army stepped up to loan a jet engine for the American Meteor's record attempt, just as they had offered support to Frank Lockhart and his Stutz Black Hawk back in 1927 to help with wind tunnel testing in his quest the break the land speed record. Patriotism ran high back in those days.
Finally, to tie it all together, this image of Ab Jenkins with a model of the jet car was posted by Waldo Stakes on the website for the Sonic Wind Land Speed Project. As Sonic WInd's site mentions: "The other photo is of a Jet car Ab was trying to find money to build in 1950. It was to be powered by a J-34 turbojet and was designed to go 450 m.p.h. Notice it has the driver sitting at the Cg and canards are located near the front. It is also a perfect streamline shape as well as having the biggest tailfin I have ever seen. I don’t know if Ab designed it himself or had a very competent aerodynamicist do it but it is a very modern design."
LOCKHEED P-80 SHOOTING STAR PURSUIT JET
On closer examination of both the sketch and the model, it appears the design was based on the development for the fuselage of the XP-80 (Shooting Star) that was tested in the wind tunnel around 1943 or 1944. The large tail on the model is a near copy of the tail on the XP-80A which was originally designed around the I-40 powerplant, slightly larger than the TG-180. It suggests that the model was built during the period that the project had planned to use the P-80 as its base rather than the later jet designs that followed. If so, the odds are very high that the model was built by Alex Tremulis himself, who by that time was a master at building scale models of concept cars and jet aircraft. The photos shown below of the XP-80 in the wind tunnel and the P-80 Shooting Star give a good indication of what the basic shape of the jet car would have looked like at full scale. The two entry ducts for the American Meteor look nearly identical to those developed for the P-80. Also, what initially looks like an exaggerated tail design on both the sketch and the model now becomes clear that it was a wind tunnel-proven design for the P-80 jet. Tremulis said in 1946 that the vehicle would be 30 feet long which is about 5 feet shorter than the P-80. This would add to the appearance of an oversized tail, even if it was of the same height as the P-80's tail.
On closer examination of both the sketch and the model, it appears the design was based on the development for the fuselage of the XP-80 (Shooting Star) that was tested in the wind tunnel around 1943 or 1944. The large tail on the model is a near copy of the tail on the XP-80A which was originally designed around the I-40 powerplant, slightly larger than the TG-180. It suggests that the model was built during the period that the project had planned to use the P-80 as its base rather than the later jet designs that followed. If so, the odds are very high that the model was built by Alex Tremulis himself, who by that time was a master at building scale models of concept cars and jet aircraft. The photos shown below of the XP-80 in the wind tunnel and the P-80 Shooting Star give a good indication of what the basic shape of the jet car would have looked like at full scale. The two entry ducts for the American Meteor look nearly identical to those developed for the P-80. Also, what initially looks like an exaggerated tail design on both the sketch and the model now becomes clear that it was a wind tunnel-proven design for the P-80 jet. Tremulis said in 1946 that the vehicle would be 30 feet long which is about 5 feet shorter than the P-80. This would add to the appearance of an oversized tail, even if it was of the same height as the P-80's tail.
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A PROJECT BEFORE ITS TIME
To put this project in perspective, this was a full decade and a half before the first serious jet-powered vehicles would be making any land speed record attempts at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and almost 20 years before the Art Arfons/Craig Breedlove speed duels.
To put this project in perspective, this was a full decade and a half before the first serious jet-powered vehicles would be making any land speed record attempts at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and almost 20 years before the Art Arfons/Craig Breedlove speed duels.
It also becomes abundantly clear that Alex Tremulis' consultancy on Walt Arfons' JATO-powered Wingfoot Express II was no coincidence. These would have been similar to the bottles that Tremulis and Jenkins had intended to both boost their jet car up to speed as well as slow it down, all within the allotted 13 mile distance they had to work with at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Tremulis already had design experience with these devices well before Walt Arfons' runs for the record, so he was a natural to provide his aerodynamic and rocket propulsion expertise for the Wingfoot Express II.
POTENTIAL INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN METEOR ON AUTOMOBILE DESIGN
POTENTIAL INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN METEOR ON AUTOMOBILE DESIGN
The American Meteor concept of an automobile design based on a jet figher fuselage surely was not overlooked by GM's Harley Earl. In 1953, seven years following the Tremulis-Jenkins jet car, the highly influential XP-21 Firebird was debuted to the public as one of the first cars inspired by the aircraft of the new jet age. It also included a 370 hp (280 kW) Whirlfire Turbo Power gas turbine engine for which the car was to be a working test bed.
The press swooned, "the first impression one gets of the Firebird is that it is a jet fighter on four wheels – an impression that prevails even while the car is standing still." The comparisons were welcomed as GM would identify future production models with elements from their jet-age dream car. The fins would soon become standard issue on many production cars of the late 1950's.
CURRENT LAND SPEED RECORD PROJECTS
To think that Tremulis' designs are not relevant in today's quest for the absolute land speed record would be severely underestimating the project's foresight. One needs to look no further than his original concept and compare it to any one of the latest efforts in land speed racing: Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America and the North American Eagle Project. Breedlove's car is an all-new design while the NAE bases its car on the workings of a wingless F104A Starfighter aircraft of the 1960's. Reducing the frontal area for maximum speed is critical in order to minimize the drag, so looking at the frontal views for each of these cars tells a compelling story: The similarities of the 70 year old American Meteor to the current contenders are astounding and a testament to its advanced design.
To think that Tremulis' designs are not relevant in today's quest for the absolute land speed record would be severely underestimating the project's foresight. One needs to look no further than his original concept and compare it to any one of the latest efforts in land speed racing: Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America and the North American Eagle Project. Breedlove's car is an all-new design while the NAE bases its car on the workings of a wingless F104A Starfighter aircraft of the 1960's. Reducing the frontal area for maximum speed is critical in order to minimize the drag, so looking at the frontal views for each of these cars tells a compelling story: The similarities of the 70 year old American Meteor to the current contenders are astounding and a testament to its advanced design.
Craig Breedlove is currently attempting to bring the absolute speed record back to the United States with his concept for the next generation of the Spirit of America. While still just a concept, the project will need more support in the form of sponsors who are willing to step up to the plate to help this project succeed.
As testament to the North American Eagle's potential, in October 2013, Jessi Combs piloted the NAE to a new average two-way speed record at over 393 miles per hour. The future plans for the NAE include an assault on the absolute land speed record at over 763 miles per hour.
The other top contenders for the absolute record either have backing from their respective governments, such as the British Bloodhound SSC, or are currently in front of their Parliament seeking support such as the Aussie Invader. Will either of these two American efforts gain the required sponsorship to recapture the record for the United States or will they end up as the American Meteor as a promising project that could have been?
There also must be more to the story of the American Meteor and the efforts of Tremulis and Jenkins to get funding for their project. Perhaps some other obscure pieces to this puzzle can now be fit into their proper place in history.
As Alex Tremulis often said while recounting his many automotive projects: "Maybe the future has finally caught up with the past".
As Alex Tremulis often said while recounting his many automotive projects: "Maybe the future has finally caught up with the past".
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