Guest: Scott Truax; Topics: Scott talks about his books, his father Robert Truax, rocket building, the Sea Dragon Rocket and Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon.
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We welcomed Scott Truax to the show to discuss the rocketry of his father, Robert Truax, plus his books, "American Rocketman" and "Return to Snake River." Scott explained the book "American Rocketman" which was mostly written by his Dad but never published. After his Dad's death, he finished the book with his own last chapter and published the book. Later, he wrote his book "Return To Snake River" which documents his work to prove that his Dad's design for Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon jump was solid and the failure was caused the parachute which was a third party responsibility. As the discussion moved forward, Scott talked about getting stuntman Eddie Braun to do the jump all over again on the motorcycle built by Scott which was modeled after the one his Dad built for Evel. Listen to Scott tell us the story about this adventure and the ultimate success of Eddie's jump and of what Scott set out to prove. This part of our discussion formed a major part of our program as we kept coming back to the jump, Evel, Robert Truax and his relationship with Evel, and the impression all of this had on Scott as a small boy growing up in this environment.
Many listeners sent in emails with lots of questions. Most of the questions asked about stunts and their commercial capability today. Don't miss how Scott responded to these questions. Hint: Stunts do not appear to be a rich money making activity at this time. Listeners also asked Scott about rockets and his Dad's work with the Navy. Several questions ended up focusing on the Sea Dragon, its performance specs, why it never happened and the lack of a market for it at the time of its possible development. I recall asking his why Sea Dragon never went anywhere. The bottom line was that there was no real market for a rocket that size. Market is everything for a commercial rocket, even today. Listeners asked about his Dad's experience with his companies including Rocketdyne, plus several listeners wanted to know about Truax and/or Evel Knievel museums for the Snake River hardware plus other Truax hardware. Scott said the Evel museum was in Topeka, KS plus he mentioned other locations for some of the famous work and memorabilia. Scott also mentioned the Disney movie "Stuntman" which one can see if they subscribe to Disney Plus. Finally, Scott provided information on how listeners can get his books, including autographed copies of the two books mentioned on this program.
Please post your comments/questions on our blog for this show. You can reach Scott Truax through me or with the information our guest provided during our discussion.
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