He is “Wile E. Coyote”…in the flesh. Bob Maddox…started with the idea of strapping a rocket to his chest while skydiving, Maddox says “I thought it would be cool to strap something on an rocket through the sky” While he never fired that rocket up…he didn’t stop designing…and he is the first to build these pulse jet rockets. He says ” I saw a design of an old German cruise missile in an encyclopedia, now I’m the foremost authority on rockets in the world.” Now, Bob puts those jet engines on just about anything.
“That’s what I do, I build these engines and need something to put them on so I can go fast. This is the only Lakester with a jet engine on it” Bob’s rocket propelled bikes are a hit with collectors, and those with open space to ride.
“these aren’t meant for riding downtown and they make a whole lot of noise like 130 decibels”
his work even landed him on up coming episode of Mythbusters.
“i knew that Mythbusters would call some day, just because they are close, their in San Francisco and because these engines create a lot fire and noise”
Every so often Maddox finds something knew to strap a rocket to, but he still wants to go back to that first idea…of launching himself through the air.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.