Jet car lawsuit settled

Fifty years on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry did more damage to the Spirit of America jet car than a high-speed crash on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the owner of the historical marvel told the Chicago Tribune.

Craig Breedlove on Monday settled his lawsuit filed last summer against the museum for an undisclosed amount of money, according to the newspaper, noting that he had been seeking $395,000 in damages.

According to the case, Mr. Breedlove loaned his prize vehicle — which he had designed, built and piloted to speeds topping 526 mph — to the museum in 1965 after it had been freshly repaired from his “harrowing” crash during a land speed record run at the salt flats, the newspaper reported. 

When it was taken off display at the museum and shipped to his home in Rio Vista, California, in 2015, it was in far worse shape than after the crash, he told reporters.

Damage included graffiti where schoolchildren had carved their initials in the aluminum finish, a cut frame that had been “unprofessionally” rewelded and a missing driver’s seat, Mr. Breedlove added.