Rocket Powered Crane!

I'm sure you have either seen the Road Runner cartoon with the rocket powered Coyote, or the Darwin Award/Urban Myth (true!) about the guy who put some rockets on his pickup and "flew"...well the rocket scientists at Armadillo Aerospace, the company that was started by John Carmack, the guy behind the games Doom and Quake, among others decided to have a bit of fun. They use a crane truck for static testing of their rocket engine, as it is tanj heavy, and has feet that will go out and anchor it to the ground....but they just couldn't resiste the temptation, and pulled up the feet, let go of the brakes, and had a rocket powered crane for a a couple hundred feet! Now, it doesn't go all that fast as the engine only provides about 1,500 pounds of thrust, and the crane truck weights 50,000 pounds...but it *is* fun to watch!

http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2008_02_24/rocketCraneTruck.mpg

(Sorry, no youtube version of it yet....)