Darwin Award

["Al Powell" <APOWELL@agcom.tamu.edu>]

> From: "Duff, Ian" <iduff@charter.com>
> 
> JATO is really cool, except for the testing done by some chap in the
> desert recently. Seems he attached a JATO unit to a big 'murican boat
> (Caprice? Crown Vicky?), found a long straight stretch, jumped in and
> fired the puppy up. The sheriffs found his car stuffed well into a cliff
> a longer way down the road, brakes burned out, they figured the speed at
> impact to be in excess of 250mph. Guess he didn't figure out the
> throttle. Must have missed the zener diode overboost protection trick
> from this list.

AH!  You are referring to the gent who was (posthumously) 
given the Darwin Award for 1995, an award given to someone who does 
something SO egregiously stupid as to have advanced the IQ of 
civilization by removing him/herself from the ranks!!

BTW - I believe the flaw in the perp's plans was was to use a solid 
fuel rocket booster.  The problem is that once ignited, it does NOT 
go out until it is completely consumed.  This is a problem when one 
encounters turns.  I don't know if all JATO units are solid fuel, so 
I thought I'd throw in this detail.....
 
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