Monster Machines: The World’s Fastest Jet-Truck

Monster Machines: The World’s Fastest Jet-Truck


How do you move 2700kg of Peter built tractor-trailer 400m in less time than it takes to read this sentence? By strapping on a trio of jet engines, obviously.

Built in 1984 by drag racing legend Les Shockley, the Shockwave packs three Pratt & Whitney J34-48 engines — the same used in the T2A Buckeye naval trainer — onto its 660cm wheelbase. These generate a total of 36,000 horsepower and 25,760Nm — more than enough to propel this 3000kg semi to speeds exceeding 600km/h. The Shockwave is even fast enough to wow crowds on the airshow circuit by racing passing planes.

While the Shockwave itself is by no means street legal — all that smoke and fire your see is created by dumping raw diesel from the truck’s engine into ring-shaped burners built into the jet engines’ exhausts — but it’s smaller cousin, the Ford F650 Frictionator, is technically road-worthy. At least until you light the afterburners. [Flash Fire Jet TrucksHow Stuff WorksRhode Island Air Show]