![]() Many residents remember Knievel’s promise of a weeklong festival complete with celebrities and a golf tournament. Not all in the southern Idaho town of Twin Falls have such fond memories of Knievel. How many people get to finish the dream of their hero?” “I like to say I’m not doing something that Evel Knievel couldn’t do,” he told the Statesman before making the jump. After so many years, sentiment in town seems to have evolved. The 40th anniversary of Evel Knievels failed jump comes at the beginning of September 2014. All of the aspiring daredevils warn that time is of the essence. He looked at the stunt as a way to pay homage to Knievel, who inspired him to become a stuntman. Twin Falls’ mayor promises to move expeditiously on the other applications. Truax followed his father’s blueprints down to the last bolt and deviated only by updating the parachute system.īraun had trouble finding corporate sponsors for the stunt, and said he spent about $1.5 million of his own money on the jump. Probably known most famously as the canyon that Evel Knievel attempted to jump his motorcycle over in 1974 (emphasis on attempted), the Snake River Canyon is. Months of testing was performed on the rocket designed by Scott Truax, whose father constructed the original “X2 Skycycle” for Knievel. ![]() Still, he had prepared for the worst in the days before the stunt, asking his young son to one day walk his sisters down the aisle at their wedding if Braun died in his attempt. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought it couldn’t be done,” he said. The spot where Knievel jumped was 1,600 feet (488 meters) wide.īraun hoped his effort would prove that Knievel could have made it across the canyon if his parachute had deployed at the correct time.īefore the jump, the 54-year-old Braun said he was optimistic he would make it across the canyon. Knievel landed at the bottom of the canyon when his parachute prematurely deployed partway across the canyon, but walked away with only minor injuries. “He was gone in a cloud of steam and I couldn’t see anything until just before he pulled his chutes,” Truax said.īraun has said the rocket was identical to the model Knievel used for his failed canyon attempt on Sept. Evel Knievel, original name Robert Craig Knievel, (born October 17, 1938, Butte, Montana, U.S.died November 30, 2007, Clearwater, Florida), American motorcycle daredevil who captivated audiences with his. Scott Truax, the designer of the rocket, told the Idaho Statesman that after Braun got the OK to launch he didn’t hesitate. In 1974 Evel Knievel tried but failed to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho using a rocket-powered motorcycle called the Sky-Cycle. We scored and won,” Braun said in a statement after the jump. The parachute saved his life as he floated down the canyon. The rocket’s parachute deployed prematurely, and he did not make it across. “I feel like the no-name, third-string quarterback of a junior-varsity team that just won the Super Bowl. On September 8th, 1974, Evel Knievel strapped himself into the rocket to soar across the Snake River in Twin Falls.
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