Further Reading on the Subject of Rocket Cars

Reports to Congress prepared by the Secretary of Transportation

The High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 was the Congressional driving force behind the creation of the Pueblo High Speed Test Center, and the development and testing of the Museum’s three Rocket Cars. Under this Act of Congress, the Secretary of Transportation was required to report, to Congress and the President, results of research and development, along with recommendations for future action. Four of these reports are the source of much of the information documented in this Rocket Car section of our Museum website. These reports, in PDF format, can be downloaded using the links below:

• “Fifth Report on the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965“, published in 1971 (7.8 MB).
• “Eighth Report on the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965“, published in 1974 (11.9 MB).
• “Ninth Report on the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965“, published in April 1976 (14.4 MB).
• “Tenth and Final Report on the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965“, published in May 1977 (3 MB).

Other documents:

• “PTACV Marketing Survey Report and System Summary” is a 92-page June 1976 report from Rohr Industries which contains the photos on this website of the Rohr’s assembly at Chula Vista (13 MB).
• “Advanced Systems and Advanced Technology” is a 21-page October 1977 summary from DOT of “ten years of advanced research and development by the FRA” (1.4 MB).
• One-page summary by the Garrett Corporation of its LIMRV (1.3 MB)

Technical documents for the hard core geeks:

• NASA Langley Research Center LIM Reaction Rail Analysis, 83 pages of everything you could ever want to know about how a LIM motor reaction rail behaves (1.3 MB).
• Garrett LIMRV Data Analysis Program, helpful diagrams and schematics in case you want to build your own Garrett in your garage (0.4 MB).

An Engineer’s Perspective

Below is a link to a website created by Shawn Driscoll, son of John Driscoll, one of the engineers at Rohr Industries who worked on our Rohr Aerotrain. Shawn’s write-up includes history on all three of our Rocket Cars, and some of the motivations behind their creation and development.

The Rohr Aerotrain Tracked Air-Cushion Vehicle (TACV)

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