2001 ME Senior Design Dragster Race
Saturday May 19 was an exciting day - it was the culmination
of the three quarter Senior Design project - ten teams racing their
radio-controlled dragsters in pairs down the
In the team lineup picture notice that the four steam
engines taking the first four places are shown on the extreme left, and the
three
There was a significant amount of variation and innovation
in the designs - five double-acting steam engines with spool valves, one
opposed-piston wobbler steam engine, two impulse
steam turbines, one gamma type
The steam engines overwhelmingly carried the day, taking the
first three places with their inevitable spectacular puffs of steam. First
place went to Team "If it runs it will be a miracle" Miracle.
Proudly posing with their vehicle (clockwise) are Chad Sypolt,
Adam Landis, Paul Hamrick, Robert Langford and Tim Henning. Team Double-Down had
the fastest and most professionally designed vehicle by far, and during time
trials they managed to cover the course within 26 seconds. Unfortunately they
came in second place because of a mishap in the remote control mechanism which
caused them to run off the course towards the end. Team Dynama-RAMM
came in third place, and team Firestone with the wobbler
steam engine came in fourth.
