Interesting Trivia, Links, Videos on the Spiral Jump Stunt

News, notes, questions on the McHenry invented James Bond Astro Spiral Jump Stunt
MSI
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Interesting Trivia, Links, Videos on the Spiral Jump Stunt

Post by MSI »

spiral pics.jpg
spiral pics.jpg (103.01 KiB) Viewed 5087 times
My brother Stan McHenry recently sent this link from Jan 24 2017 on website Vanderbuilt Cup Races: which includes many interesting facts, links to videos, etc. for example:
  • Where was this stunt filmed?
    • Along the Mae Klong River, 30 miles from Bangkok, Thailand. Accordingly to Masslive.com, "A ramp was built on each side - one for launching and one for landing. American engineers were flown in to oversee the piledriving of 62 piers and the construction of a concrete road leading up to the "bridge." The ramps were then camouflaged to look like an old bridge whose center has deteriorated and fallen into the river over time." The stunt was successful in the first and only take.
  • Why is this car stunt credited with making cinematic history?
    • It is the first car stunt created by a computer simulation program. Race car driver and motor show producer Jay Milligan, Sr. worked with Raymond McHenry, head of the engineering mechanics in the transportation research at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (now Calspan Corp.). McHenry obtained a patent on the car stunt in 1974.
It also has excerpts from the article Mister Supernatural by Karl Ludvigsen on Bill Miliken:
including:
  • Thus it's ironic that the Astro Spiral, by far the most spectacular and most public event with which Bill Milliken's been associated, didn't find him behind the stunt car's wheel. Its first tests were run on the concrete apron adjacent to the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (CAL) in upstate New York, where Bill was director of the Transportation Division until his retirement in 1976. On this same apron Bill had demonstrated the self-limiting handling of a VW Beetle to a new employee by circling a research airplane at higher and higher speeds until the Bug's inside rear wheel lifted, providing automatic speed control. "People were peering out the windows," recalled the new hire, "wondering when Bill would crash into this invaluable test aircraft."

    The new CAL employee was Ray McHenry, who would turn to Milliken in 1968 to get real-world validation of a computer program he'd created to simulate the motion of a car over irregular surfaces. They did it by bouncing cars over the ramps of a stunt-driving team, which put them in touch with this arcane genre. To push his program to the limit and demonstrate its versatility McHenry contacted the All American Hell Drivers run by W. Jay Milligan, Jr. Together they came up with the astounding idea of a ramp-to-ramp jump in which a car turned 360 degrees in the air-a barrel-roll, if you will. It was a stunt that could only be computer-generated; no trial-and-error effort could ever have achieved it.

    To test the ramps that McHenry's computers designed, they fitted the trial Javelin with a modified cruise control to hold its speed, automatic steering, and remote-controlled braking as an abort system. These guided three unmanned jumps that showed that the stunt worked-surprisingly well. Although observing these unorthodox proceedings with a jaundiced eye, CAL's top brass allowed them to go ahead. "There were those in CAL's management who were hoping it would crash so they'd be done with it," McHenry recalled. "The spiral jump would never have gone ahead without Bill. He had tremendous influence on CAL's chief, Ira Ross, that let him get away with things that others wouldn't have."

    Three manned jumps on CAL's apron followed the unmanned launches before the Astro Spiral was debuted inside Houston's Astrodome on January 15, 1972. Fifty thousand Texans went berserk at the incredible sight of a barrel-rolling Javelin, applauding and hollering. Among the race-suited ramp hands were McHenry and Milliken, arch-intellectuals given a rare moment in the limelight. The later jump for the James Bond cameras in Thailand was, according to Bill, one of the best they'd ever had. The resulting publicity was such that CAL's Ira Ross sold many more of McHenry's programs***-giving a hint as to why Ross was willing to tolerate Milliken's less conventional initiatives.
*** ERRATA:
  • HVOSM - One Of The First Open Source Programs:
    • The statement above that "The resulting publicity [on the Spiral Jump] was such that CAL's Ira Ross sold many more of McHenry's programs-giving a hint as to why Ross was willing to tolerate Milliken's less conventional initiatives".
    is misleading and incorrect!
    • CAL never sold the HVOSM program (now known as msmac3D).
      They freely gave it away to improve highway safety research.
MSI
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Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:37 pm

Re: Interesting Trivia, Links, Videos on the Spiral Jump Stunt

Post by MSI »

One additional errata on the link cited above:
They posted
wrong stunt driver name.jpg
wrong stunt driver name.jpg (6.72 KiB) Viewed 5060 times
That is WRONG.
We knew it but to be sure and to double check, note the obituaries for Bumps:
That amazing spiral jump stunt driver's last name was Willert NOT Willet!
Lauren Bumps Willert Obituairy links.jpg
Lauren Bumps Willert Obituairy links.jpg (52.65 KiB) Viewed 5060 times
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