“Only a few people on the planet have put their legs inside a rocket,” Beck says. To slow himself down, he first sat upright, allowing wind resistance to do some of the work lest the brake pads or wheels melt. Leaning forward in a near-prone position, he managed to reach about 90 miles an hour. He strapped the engine to the back of a custom-built bicycle, dressed himself in a red jumpsuit and white helmet, and fired up a trial run in a local parking lot. Lacking a hazmat suit, he wrapped himself in plastic bags and put on a welding helmet as he distilled peroxide and other chemicals.Īfter successfully testing one of his engine designs, he decided it was time for a proper adventure.
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After checking out books from the library to learn how to make his own fuel, he set up a laboratory in a backyard shed and set to work on a rocket engine. In 1999, at 18, Beck did something most people would consider very stupid. “Eventually she would yell out, ‘You have to stop angle grinding and get to bed.’ ”
“Mum would bring dinner down and set it on a bench for me, but it would just get cold,” Beck says. Beck’s parents, a museum director and a teacher, encouraged their son-within reason.
At 16 he bought a rusted-out Austin Mini for $300 and refurbished it end-to-end, rebuilding the engine and suspension and fixing all of the body panels. At 15 he built an aluminum bike from scratch. He spent much of his youth tinkering in the family’s garage workshop in small-town New Zealand, amid welding and milling equipment. Peter Beck was more productive than most teenagers.