Rocket PoweR, InteRstellaR tRavel and eteRnal lIfe

Perhaps the last documented demonstration
use of the rocket engine was
that photographed in 1934 at Colussy’s
Airport in Coudersport, Pennsylvania.
116 Hungerford was accompanied
by Charles A. Osman (? – before 1963)
inside the rocket car with the temperature
reaching 140 F inside the car as it
rocketed along the landing field. 117 An
undated clip from an Elmira newspaper
shows the rocket car in operation at
the Colussy Airport. The caption says
Osman, “kept one hand on a fire extinguisher,
which he was ready to use if
necessary. Mr. Hungerford is fitting his
car with a larger vaporizing pump to
increase the efficiency of his rocket
apparatus.” 118
Cliff Towner recalled a story told to
him by Daniel Hungerford about being
stopped on a return from Coudersport
by a state trooper on a motorcycle.
He said the trooper didn’t believe
the car would actually run under
rocket power and insisted on a
demonstration. Reluctantly, Dan
said he complied with the trooper’s
request and proceed to give
him a demonstration on the highway.
Unfortunately, the uneven
roads of the time, combined with
the thrust of the liquid fuel, caused
considerable vibration resulting in
a very large bolt flying through the
side of the rocket car and narrowly
missing the trooper, who was riding
alongside on his cycle. 119
The Potter County, Pennsylvania
Enterprise in 1958 noted that the
Hungerford rocket car had been the
first car “to be licensed by the State of
Pennsylvania to operate by rocket
power.” It is possible the newspaper
reporter confused New York and
Pennsylvania registration for the vehicle.
In any case, after interviewing
Daniel Hungerford in 1958, the paper
learned that the Hungerford brothers
valued the vehicle at “easily a billion
dollars” with the Smithsonian
Institution having made bid for it.
Twenty-fours years before the Potter
Enterprise ran an advertisement indicat-
Figure 15. In a letter addressed December 29, 1933 to Daniel Hungerford from
“Buck Rogers,” a writer complemented Hungerford “doing humanity a real service.
Rocket airplanes, rocket automobiles, etc., will undoubtedly be the great important
development in transportation.”
26 Daniel and Floyd Hungerford: Rocket Power, Interstellar Travel and Eternal Life, by Geofrey N. Stein