JiieveTs Sky-Cycle ride nears
THE BATTALION Page 7
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5,1974
Attorneys ask judge
Two test runs have hit the drink to den 'J plea-bargain
N FALLS, Idaho (AP)—The
tific brain behind Evel
lievel’s attempt to hurdle the
ake River Canyon figures his
ent’s chances of success are
Knit the same as a test pilot trying
(anewaircraft for the first time. ”
obertTruax, a veteran engineer
J, S. guided missile programs,
ve his estimate Wednesday, just
jments after a crane delicately
[Wsited Knievel’s X2 Sky-Cycle
the 108-foot ramp from which the
intman will be catapulted Sun-
I
Td say the chances are less than
efepace agency gave the as-
ihauts,” Truax, 56, said at the
linch site at the edge of the
J-fbot-deep canyon. “Our statis-
$ are two tests in the drink, so if
u take a pessimistic view, our
es are zero,
ut we feel they’re considerably
ir than zero,” Truax added,
tthe foot of the dirt hill forming
e base of the launch ramp was the
led wreckage of the XI Sky-
which plunged to the bottom
canyon last November. At the
of the hill was the compara-
unbroken shell of the second
st vehicle that failed to make it
sthe 1,600-foot gap a week and
lalt ago.
iTruax, a developer of the Air
rce secret satellite and Navy
iris missile programs, appeared
iconcerned by the aluminum
eletons as he explained what (
oukl happen after the 34-year-old
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Knievel straps himself into the
toylike Sky-Cycle at about 4:30 p. m.
EDT Sunday. Ffity thousand peo
ple are expected to watch the stunt
here, with millions more in theaters
for the closed circuit telecast.
Knievel, who made his name by
jumping motorcycles over trucks
and the like, is carrying a $100,000
check made out to Truax.-It’s dated
Sept. 9 — the day after the jump —
and Truax said, “We get him across
or get nothing.”
Truax said the clock will begin
ticking for Knievel when he lowers
himself into the cramped, open
cockpit of the rocketlike vehicle.
Once inside, Knievel will turn on
a master switch controlling the elec
trical system, press a button to start
cameras inside the cockpit, pull
back a lever that will control the
crucial parachutes and, finally, start
the engine.
“He doesn’t have to do anything
really complex,” said Truax with a
smile.
As designed by Truax, the Sky-
Cycle is quite unlike the motorcy
cles Knievel is used to. At 13 feet
long, about 1,300 pounds fully
loaded, the vehicle is really a
steam-driven bullet with Knievel
along as the passenger. As the en
gine is activated, water heated to
720 degrees will be fed into the veh
icle and cooled to 700 degrees,
creating the steam that will power it
over the jagged rocks of the canyon.
By the time they reach the end of
the ramp, pointing 56 degrees in the
air, Knievel and his Sky-Cycle
should be traveling about 200 miles
per hour. Peak speed will be about
400 m.p.h., Truax said.
With 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of
thrust behind him, Knievel can wait
no longer than 21 seconds to push
forward the lever to activate the
two-parachute system on which his
life will depend. If he does push the
lever and if the chutes deploy, the
remaining few minutes of the at
tempt will be taken up by the
“cycle” floating to earth from its an
ticipated height of about 2,000 feet.
Truax expects Knievel to undergo
a “red-out” as the force of gravity
increases with his velocity. The
stuntman will experience a partial
loss of vision and possibly a noseb
leed, but should not lose conscious
ness, the engineer said. If he does
become unconscious, or if the vehi
cle begins to spin, Knievel should
simply let go of the spring-loaded
parachute lever which will send the
initial drone chute and, moments
later, main chute, spiraling out be
hind.
There is a backup system to allow
the ground crew to deploy the
chutes if Knievel releases the lever.
“If he freezes on that stick, there’s
nothing in God’s world we can do,”
Truax said.
The missile engineer added that
Knievel has the option of bailing
out. “It’s hard to get him interested
in practicing, but I think if someone
tells him to bail himself out once he
gets up there, he’ll give himself a
shove and jump. ”
Assuming the Sky-Cycle makes it
across the canyon with Knievel still
in it, the chutes should carry it to
the dry rocky ground nose first.
Built into the vehicle is an eight-foot
shock absorber, something like a
large pogo stick, that will cushion
the impact.
What about recovery plans? “My
job is to get him up and down safely
and after that, it’s up to someone
else,” Truax said.
DALLAS (AP)—State attorneys
and attorneys representing a San
Angelo savings and loan firm will ask
a federal judge not to approve a
plea-bargain deal made by Water
gate special prosecutors with Jake
Jacobsen, it was learned here Wed
nesday.
Jacobsen agreed to testify against
former Gov. John Connally in a
bribery case in return for the drop
ping of Texas charges against him
involving the misapplication of
funds of the savings and loans com
pany.
The Dallas Morning News
quoted sources in Dallas as saying
that representatives of the Texas At
torney General’s Office, and the
First Savings and Loan Association
of San Angelo would file a brief with
Judge Hill opposing dismissal of the
charges.
Last week U.S. District Judge
Robert Hill delayed an approval of
the plea-bargain after U.S. attor
neys asked that the Texas charges
against Jacobsen be dismissed.
Hill said he questioned whether
the special prosecutor’s staff in
Washington can make a deal in one
case that would be binding on a
judge in a completely unrelated
case in another court.
The Texas charges referred to the
misapplication of $825,000 in loans
from the San Angelo company in
1971. Another man charged in the
same case pleaded guilty last week.
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