MAY 23, 1928

The Opel RAK 2 rocket car is armed with 24 powder rockets manufactured by Friedrich Sander. Fritz von Opel ignites these with a foot pedal. The 6,000 kilograms of total thrust have enough force to blow up an entire block of residential /office buildings. The pilot is separated from the explosives by a single steel armor plate. There are stabilizing wings on the sides with a negative angle of attack, whose function is to compensate for the uplift and keep the car on the ground. The RAK 2 does actually lift off in the end, but von Opel manages to keep it under control. The entire run lasts around two minutes. The chassis came from an Opel 10 / 40 HP; the car had no engine and no transmission.

Three thousand invited guests from sports, cinema, science, and politics – including actress Lilian Harvey, boxer Max Schmeling, and racecar driver Karl Jörns – as well as reporters, photographers, and filmmakers from Germany and abroad – have gathered at the AVUS.