THE BALLAD OF CRAZY ROCKETMAN

WHAT A BUILDER OF PULSE-JET-ENGINE VEHICLES CAN TELL US ABOUT MOTORING PASSION.

- A.J. BAIME PHOTOGRAPHY

BOB Maddox's stage name, Crazy Rocketman, is a misnomer. Maddox doesn't build rockets. He builds pulse-jet engines. There's a difference. As for the crazy part-that may be true.

Maddox is the world's foremost builder of vehicles powered by pulse jets. He builds them in his garage starting with nothing but sheet aluminum, stainless steel, and stuff he gets on Amazon. He makes engines that glow at around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, produce about as many decibels as Top Fuel dragsters, and launch him toward the horizon at crazy-fun speeds. He once built the world's largest pulse-jet engine and mounted it in a 1965 Jaguar. Star Wars audio engineers recorded his pulse-jet engines for the movie Solo.

You may have seen Maddox, who's usually wearing his trademark sparkly blue 1973 Bell helmet emblazoned with "Bob Bitchin" (a Cheech & Chong reference), in a GoPro commercial, on Monster Garage, on a giant screen in Times Square, or on YouTube, where his videos have millions of views.

When I show up at his house in small-town Oregon with the L.A.-based Swiss photographer Reto Sterchi, Maddox, 63, presents himself like Santa Claus without the uniform, if Santa Claus hit the gym twice a day. His wife is delightful. She's Native American, and there's a towering tepee on the property. We are introduced to their six miniature horses, 17 cats, three dogs, eight chickens, and 20 koi fish. Then Maddox begins to unravel the story of how he became Crazy Rocketman.