Well, it’s that time of year again - tornado season. The central plains have already seen their share of tornados just this past week. We have learned so much about tornados and yet we have so much to learn. We’re pretty good at tracking them once they’re on the ground. But what if we could actually predict and model them before they form? That would be the holy grail of tornado injury prevention. I guess the next step would be to alter a cloud’s dynamics to prevent the tornado from happening - but I am getting ahead of myself.
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Steve Green, a former stock car racer, has built the ultimate tornado vehicle - the Tornado Attack Vehicle, or TA-1. Steve spent four years, and $500,000 building his dream machine. I guess Steve will be getting some good up-close video, huh? Nope. Steve wants to drive into a tornado. That’s right. This crazy person will drive straight into the path of the tornado. Steve might be revolutionary, but he’s not nuts. A lot of design has gone into his vehicle. Steve initially had Richard Broome, a champion drag boat and funny car builder, design the car. The transmission is the type that goes into dragsters. The interior sports a steel roll cage. And the seat and harness was made by Kris VanGilder, the guy who made seats for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The windshields are made of two plies of quarter inch thick Lexan plastic. Then they coated it with three plies of DuPont mylar film. Each ply can stop a .22. And the car can drop onto the ground. This keeps air from getting under the car.
Is Steve crazy? Well, time will tell. As for now, you can go see some videos that they have done at Tornado Attack.
(Picture Source: Tornado Attack)
[tag]Steve Green,tornado attack vehicle,TA-1,tornado chasing[/tag]
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