NEW YORK - Rocket mavens, mark
your calendars: The date of the first Rocket Racing League race has been set.
On Aug. 1-2, the league will
stage a high-flying version of NASCAR
with rockets at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisc., in its
first-ever exhibition race. Two racers will fly planes powered by rocket
engines on a 2-lap circuit around an airborne raceway.
Pilots in the races will view the
sky racecourse on 3-D helmet displays, while the roughly 700,000 people
expected to attend will watch the action on multiple 50-foot (15-meter) projection
screens.
"We're using 21st century
technology to create a 21st century sport for 21st century people," said Granger
Whitelaw, Rocket Racing League CEO, during a press briefing here at the Yale
Club. "We're very excited about announcing our first public exhibition race."
The Rocket Racing League was founded
in 2005 by Ansari X Prize founder Peter Diamandis and Whitelaw, an
Indianapolis 500 veteran. The competitors will be piloted Mark 1 X-Racer
rockets based on the EZ-Rocket design developed by the firm XCOR
Aerospace in Mojave, California.
"I'm very proud of the incredible
progress that's been made by this team, " Diamandis said. "This is an
incredibly important and exciting sport that will be as interesting to kids as
it will be to adults."
The league currently has six teams
that will compete in four series of races throughout the year. After the first
EAA AirVenture exhibition, later races will be staged at the Reno National
Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., between Sept.10-14; at Aviation Nation at
Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nev., on Nov. 8-9, and at the X Prize Cup
in Las Cruces, N.M., in late October.
The initial racer design was
powered by XCOR's liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket engine, though Whitelaw
announced Monday that a second engine type, fueled by liquid oxygen and
ethanol, will also be available.
Mesquite,
Tex.-based Armadillo Aerospace, founded by computer game-developer John
Carmack, will build the new engines, which can be stopped and restarted. Since the
engines burn liquid oxygen and ethanol, the company added a salt water solution
to the fuel to produce a bright yellow glow from the racers.
"We're
building a robust set of technologies together that should be safe for the
pilot, cost effective, and spectacular for the crowds," Carmack said via a
video link.
Full
Rocket Racing competitions will be point-based competitions that run four laps
around an aerial racetrack, with racers switching their engines on and off to
conserve their 10-minute or so supply of fuel, league officials have said.
During
the exhibition races, two team-owned rocket planes are expected to fly,
Whitelaw said. The Bridestine Rocket Racing team, founded by former U.S. Navy
pilot Jim Bridestine, and Santa Fe Racing team led by Albuquerque land
developer Marc Cumbow will reserve the first two league racers, Whitelaw said.
"I've
been seeing the tremendous amount of exposure NASCAR has gotten, and I think
this is the next generation," Bridestine said. "I think it's going to be a lot
more exciting [than NASCAR]."
The
Rocket Racing Composites Corp. also announced the acquisition of the Velocity
Aircraft company of Sebastian, Fla., which will construct airframes for the league's
Rocket Racers. The cockpit seats for all the Rocket Racers will be reinforced
to withstand impacts of up to 20G forces, and the league plans to add safety
measures to the racers similar to that of F-1 and Indy Cars.
The
composites firm and racing league itself are part of the Rocket Racing, Inc.,
an umbrella firm that also includes a research and development branch based in
Las Cruces, Whitelaw said.
"What's
really important, and unusual in this type of business, is a focus on safety,"
said Scott Baker, president of Velocity, Inc. "Those advances are going to find
themselves entering into the world of general aviation. We're looking forward
to some exciting times ahead."
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