Raging Bull

Even as the RaceTech engineers were working in secret to develop their Sonic Scramjet - hoping finally to pull ahead of their rivals – those very rivals at Overdrive Technology were doing the exact same thing.

The result is the Raging Bull. Like the Sonic Scramjet that their rivals were developing, the Raging Bull is also based on Scramjet technology (sometimes there’s just one best engineering solution to a problem, and everyone knows it.) That’s not to say that the two designs are identical. Where the RaceTech engineers used smooth lines and large obvious scoops, the skunk works at Overdrive Technology favored flat panels, sharp edges, and concealed air intakes.

Aesthetics aside, the principles are the same: supersonic air is ingested into the engine, slams into the facets of the air scoop, and is compressed in standing shockwaves. The compressed and heated air hits additional baffles and walls, located at carefully calculated positions, and is further compressed - and that’s when the fuel is injected. At full throttle the Raging Bull roars like a hydrocarbon-burning beast and strikes fear into the hearts of anyone unlucky to be in front of it.

At the rocket tryouts, when the final models were unveiled, the engineers of RaceTech saw the Raging Bull at the same time that the designers at Overdrive Technology saw the similar Sonic Scramjet.

There was a moment of silence, and then laughter as the longtime rivals realized that, despite all of their parallel work in secret, they had arrived at almost identical results.

With the rockets so evenly matched, the results are now out of the engineers’ hands - who wins a race will come down to the Rocket Dogs who pilot them.