The Rocket City Rednecks crew includes Travis Taylor, from left, his father Charles, Rog Jones, Michael Taylor, top left, and Pete Erbach.Have you ever wondered what would happen if a group of rednecks was blessed with a killer workshop and the brains to know how to use it?
"Rocket City Rednecks" answers just that.
The new show from National Geographic follows five guys from Huntsville, Ala., as they try to discover ways to bombproof a truck using beer cans, PVC and expanding foam. They also launch a homemade rocket using moonshine.
"Rocket City Rednecks," a 20-episode series, premieres tonight on the National Geographic Channel at 9 p.m. Four of the half-hour shows will air tonight.
The team is led by Travis Taylor, a research scientist with the Department of Defense and NASA. He's joined by his father, Charles, a retired NASA machinist; Rog Jones, a metalworker with a high IQ; Travis' nephew Michael Taylor, who built his first motorized shopping cart at 16; and Pete Erbach, an optical scientist who designs satellite and laser systems for the U.S. defense industry.
Most of the experiments have real-world applications or seek to solve a real problem. The bomb-proofing idea came from Travis' desire to find a way to make Humvees more resistant to roadside bombs, for example. The moonshine rocket fuel was an experiment looking into finding alternative fuel sources.