I've seen this picture on a couple of different bicycling websites, but thought it was a fake image doctored with a little dash of PhotoShop.
C'mon. Who would strap a rocket engine to a bicycle? If you can believe CNN.com and Popular Mechanics, a rocket designer named Tim Pickens would. Pickens, who created this rocket bike that can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds, explains:
“At heart we're a bunch of guys wanting to go to space, and we can't afford it.”
The 200-pound of thrust engine uses the same hybrid rocket technology as the suborbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne. Pickens, president of Orion Propulsion, helped design the rocket for that as well.
The rocket is fueled by ordinary roofing tar, which Pickens ignites with a small model-rocket motor inside the engine.
Popular Science magazine has more details about how it works. The cost for the rocket was approximately $750.
All I can say is don't try this at home.
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