Jesse Combs.

Not seeing a show about the vehicle - which came out well before she was part of it- this *might* be interesting.  But when I saw that show, all I can think was the vehicle should not be allowed to run land speed records.  You can't just put wheels on an F104 fuselage and call it a land speed record vehicle.

So unless the owners are the ones held accountable for what happened, I'm not going to watch that.

Still breaks my heart that she got involved with that.

I'm 50/50 on watching it.  I do/don't.

Wow.

Thanks for the heads up, I will check it out.

Wow, glad I could cheer you guys up.  Sorry for trying.

I mean, an F104 with landspeed wheels on it is sketchy, but how much sketchier is it than the average thrust-driven landspeed car?

In reply to bobzilla :

They built cages in them to make them strong enough to put an engine in.  

That, and none of the drop tank cars were shooting for the sound barrier.

let alone, we are no longer in the 50's or 60's- there's a degree of knowledge on how to survive a bad crash, let alone how to design the vehicle to go the speed of sound on the ground.  Not sure why it would be ok to ignore the last 60 years of progress in design and safety.

GameboyRMH said:

I mean, an F104 with landspeed wheels on it is sketchy, but how much sketchier is it than the average thrust-driven landspeed car?

First of all, I'm betting they didn't do an analysis on the structure to see if it's actually strong enough to deal with the loadings- the F104 was not designed to be loaded like that at the front and rear of the fuselage- you'll note that the main landing gear structure ran through the fuselage near the wings- which is where the highest loading would be designed for.

Second, going back into land speed racing history- look at all of the rocket/jet powered vehicles- they are totally built around the purpose of going fast, and most of them have some kind of roll over/crash protection.  I know at least one of them ran off the end of the "track" and crashed- and the driver was able to survive.  An F104 at the time was not built around the survivability of a crash, it was designed to go fast- and that's about it.  The whole point of the design is to have the lowest drag and enough lift with massive power to go really fast through the air.  

Going back to not the most recent CF and composite LSR vehicles, they were all made from steel tubing, and not a light aluminum alloy.

But even the new ones had some survivabilty built in- in Craig Breedloves most recent one, he got blown over at about 500 MPH, and it just slid down the road.  There's no way the F104 would survive a tip over, as the light aluminum skin would wear through, and the structure would dig in.  Given the total lack of a cage- well...  

I have no idea what actually happened to Jessie, and I really don't want to know.  What I'm quite sure of is that no airplane fuselage is designed to be a land speed record car, let alone be loaded like it was. 

In reply to alfadriver :

I don't know enough details. But I'm fairly sure no one put her in it at gunpoint. 
If she was a airhead tv personality, pretending to be a gearhead, shame on the promoters. But I think she really was a gear head, knew the risk vs reward, and made an informed choice. 
Or, this being modern america, some one should sue the ice company that they filled their cooler from. 

In reply to 03Panther :

Maybe not.  But they also may not have been fully clear how safe the project wasn't.

Otherwise, you are saying that she got what she deserved, and I'm betting you don't actually think that.

Shortest thing I can say is that car was well known and expected to kill somebody. They couldn't run sanctioned events due to lack of safety, which is why they were always doing their own thing. Nothing that happened was unexpected. Tragic, yes. But not surprising to anybody in the LSR circle. 

And drop tanks are a hollow shell with a few ribs. They were literally just a skin that a frame and cage were built inside of. Totally different things. And not even worth mentioning in this conversation, for what its worth. 

Shame what happened to her. It's always weird when I see her in writing because I have a (male) friend with the same name.

alfadriver said:

In reply to 03Panther :

Maybe not.  But they also may not have been fully clear how safe the project wasn't.

Otherwise, you are saying that she got what she deserved, and I'm betting you don't actually think that.

There's a HUGE difference between "knew the risks" and "deserved to die".

In any case, regardless of the circumstances of her death and/or the safety of the car, it sounds like she led an interesting life, and a documentary about it seems pretty worthwhile.

In reply to Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) :

Thank you. 
Im very sorry the world lost what seemed to be an extremely awesome lady. 
I would hope what I said was not that easy to misinterpit , and he is just lashing out do to me disagreeing (whole heartedly) with what he wrote. I did not mean any of it to be a personal attack at him.  

In reply to GaryC83 :

Y'all know a lot more about the "cars" used out there than I ever will, and defer to the knowledge. 
I do know a lot of sketchy stuff has been done, in the name of speed. 
Most of us (not all) know the risks, and accept them. When a friend let me drive his 12 sec. street car in the early '80s, if I had wrecked it, and died, I would hope no one would have suggested holding him responsible. 

alfadriver said:

In reply to 03Panther :

Maybe not.  But they also may not have been fully clear how safe the project wasn't.

Otherwise, you are saying that she got what she deserved, and I'm betting you don't actually think that.

I did mention, if she was a dumb blond model, pretending, the promoters (not owners) would be wrong, so, yea, if, then valid point. But...

To the last, I think you are well aware I did not write of mean anything like that. 
 

You have far more tech knowledge than me. I just disagree with blaming others   

Shortest thing I can say is that car was well known and expected to kill somebody. They couldn't run sanctioned events due to lack of safety, which is why they were always doing their own thing. Nothing that happened was unexpected. Tragic, yes. But not surprising to anybody in the LSR circle. 
 

Probably all true. Especially coming from knowledgeable sources. 
But are people thinking she was intentionally misled? If so, that could be actionable. But that would also imply that see did not have the ability to look into that info. She presented herself as smarter than that. 

I'll watch it, because I've found her to be a 'real' and fascinating person in the automotive space. But, I fully expect to need a few Kleenex by the time that's over. 

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

I read ddavidv's comment completely different to you and hopefully what he meant, aka crying.

In reply to adam525i :

Ohhhhhh (and not the kleenex type, either) 

Holy cow the group has gone from riled up to downright twisted. I can't believe anyone read ddavids comment as anything other than being sad. 
 

GRM Thanksgiving  is only 2 weeks away. Let's all put on our happy faces and stop pissing about with the locked threads and arguing over an unfortunate death. Let's talk about the amazingness of our fellow members who are getting ready to go compete in the challenge. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Really?  You don't think a person can look at a cutaway of an F104 and make educated opinions that it's not a suitable frame to be used as they used it?   It's not rocket science.

I really don't care that she set records- but Craig Breedlove did survive an accident from that speed, when his vehicle was blown over.  It's not just possible, but it happened.  
 

And I didn't say it was an instant death machine, I said that it was an inappropriate structure to use as it was.  So if there was a problem, there was no way to survive.

But if you want to defend the car- go for it, make up more reasons why it was ok to take a +50 year old air plane frame and think it was a good idea to slap wheels on and try to go over 600 mph on the ground.  

It really sucks that she got caught up in this project.  Our world was a better place with her in it.