Andrew Longman
01-31-06, 03:41 PM
Seeing Franklin's name reminded me that I saw this in the paper this morning. Its on the cover of this month's PopSci too.
Gotta say that they need to go much faster than 275mph. Unchecked a number of years ago, they'd have been running that at Indy today.
And I have a hard time imagining how this will look on TV.
Finally, any accident is likely to be fatal for pilot and even fans. That won't play well for very long.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113869050779010.xml&coll=1
Speed Racer meets the Jetsons in a sports idea
Are you ready for some NASCAR-style rocketry?
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
BY KEVIN COUGHLIN
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK -- If you have a few aircraft hangars, a couple of spare runways and room to accommodate about 100,000 spectators, the Rocket Racing League wants to hear from you.
Yes, rocket racing.
Think NASCAR of the skies.
A group of high-minded dreamers is betting that adrenaline junkies will pay to watch rocket planes thunder across two-mile aerial racecourses starting next year. All the league needs are some racecourses and a bunch of pilots willing to climb into the cockpit of something that looks less like an airplane than like a "Star Wars" pod racer.
"This is going to be the sport of the 21st century," league president Granger Whitelaw said yesterday at a news briefing.
Whitelaw is a venture capitalist from Navesink who helped sponsor two Indianapolis 500 winners in auto racing. He was at the Indy 500 a few years ago when he cooked up the rocket-racing idea with space enthusiast Peter Diamandis, who awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight in 2004.
The duo hopes rocket racing will spark interest in commercial space travel -- while making astronomical amounts of money. The co-founders envision corporate sponsorships, merchandising deals, reality-TV episodes, and online video games pitting gamers against pilots as they fly real races.
Cameras will beam bird's-eye views from these "fire-breathing dragons" to hand-held devices that spectators can rent at the events, said Diamandis, who holds an aerospace degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a medical degree from Harvard.
Plans call for 10 race teams to compete next year in four races, at sites to be determined. Pilots racking up the most points will advance to semifinals in September at the Reno Air Races in Nevada, and then to October finals at the X Prize Cup in New Mexico. Prize money hasn't been set.
Races are expected to last as long as 90 minutes. Although pilots will be racing the clock, they will take off in pairs and sometimes fly within 50 feet of each other as they climb, dive and careen along mile- high courses plotted by satellite navigation systems, Whitelaw said.
They will pilot identical "Mark-1 X-Racers," $1 million machines weighing 1,500 pounds without fuel. Designed by XCOR and Velocity Aircraft, they will trail brilliant yellow flames as they burn liquid oxygen and kerosene. The racers will have four minutes' worth of fuel, so the pilots' ability to glide between bursts of rocket power will be crucial. So will the pit stops.
There is no throttling power up or down, as with jet planes.
"It's instant-on," said Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard, an F-16 pilot in the Air Force Reserves and a partner in the first race team named by the league.
They will pilot identical "Mark-1 X-Racers," $1 million machines weighing 1,500 pounds without fuel. Designed by XCOR and Velocity Aircraft, they will trail brilliant yellow flames as they burn liquid oxygen and kerosene. The racers will have four minutes' worth of fuel, so the pilots' ability to glide between bursts of rocket power will be crucial. So will the pit stops.
There is no throttling power up or down, as with jet planes.
"It's instant-on," said Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard, an F-16 pilot in the Air Force Reserves and a partner in the first race team named by the league.
"The esprit de corps, the band of brothers who fly and fight together--we're going to bring that to racing," said Don "Dagger" Grantham Jr., a fellow F-16 pilot who is Rickard's partner in the Leading Edge Rocket Racing team.
Despite the Top Gun swagger, X-Racers actually will be a whole lot slower than F-16 Fighting Falcons, which can go twice the speed of sound. An X-Racer might hit 275 mph, only about 55 mph faster than an Indy 500 car.
"Speed's not something you really want," Diamandis said. "If there's a blur in front of you, it's not very fun."
The Leading Edge team from Arizona yesterday presented a $100,000 check to the league as a down payment on an X-Racer, and is seeking corporate backers for the estimated $2 million annual cost for a vehicle and crew. Whitelaw called that a bargain compared with NASCAR racing, which he said can cost teams $18 million per season.
Nine more race teams are being sought to round out the league. The deadline for applicants is March 31.
Diamandis said he anticipates many venues will bid for race sites. A weekend of rocket racing could bring tens of millions of dollars to a host community, he said.
The league's Web site (www.rocketracingleague.com) is running a contest to name the first X-Racer.
Rocket races will be more thrilling than motor racing, Diamandis said. But he hopes any crashes will be virtual, courtesy of game designer Ramy Weitz of PixelPlay. Video games and interactive competitions should hit the market before the real rockets blast off next year, said Weitz, who devised technology for superimposing first- down markers on football telecasts.
John Griffin, a spokesman for the Indy Racing League, said he doubts the rocket venture will steal fans from motor sports, which he described as a $5 billion to $6 billion industry. Rather, he predicted, rocket racing could complement auto racing.
"If there's an opportunity for us to work together, it's probably something we'd be open to," Griffin said.
Advisers to the Rocket Racing League include former space shuttle commander Rick Searfoss and Erik Lindbergh, grandson of pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh.
The league must satisfy Federal Aviation Administration regulations. At their closest point, X-Racers will zoom within 500 feet of spectators, said Sean Tucker, an aerobatics pilot who is helping devise safety standards for the league.
Fans may want to bring earplugs.
"The sound will be unbelievable," said Tucker, who has performed at the Sussex County Air Show. "Like the sound of a 747, but louder."
Gotta say that they need to go much faster than 275mph. Unchecked a number of years ago, they'd have been running that at Indy today.
And I have a hard time imagining how this will look on TV.
Finally, any accident is likely to be fatal for pilot and even fans. That won't play well for very long.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113869050779010.xml&coll=1
Speed Racer meets the Jetsons in a sports idea
Are you ready for some NASCAR-style rocketry?
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
BY KEVIN COUGHLIN
Star-Ledger Staff
NEW YORK -- If you have a few aircraft hangars, a couple of spare runways and room to accommodate about 100,000 spectators, the Rocket Racing League wants to hear from you.
Yes, rocket racing.
Think NASCAR of the skies.
A group of high-minded dreamers is betting that adrenaline junkies will pay to watch rocket planes thunder across two-mile aerial racecourses starting next year. All the league needs are some racecourses and a bunch of pilots willing to climb into the cockpit of something that looks less like an airplane than like a "Star Wars" pod racer.
"This is going to be the sport of the 21st century," league president Granger Whitelaw said yesterday at a news briefing.
Whitelaw is a venture capitalist from Navesink who helped sponsor two Indianapolis 500 winners in auto racing. He was at the Indy 500 a few years ago when he cooked up the rocket-racing idea with space enthusiast Peter Diamandis, who awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight in 2004.
The duo hopes rocket racing will spark interest in commercial space travel -- while making astronomical amounts of money. The co-founders envision corporate sponsorships, merchandising deals, reality-TV episodes, and online video games pitting gamers against pilots as they fly real races.
Cameras will beam bird's-eye views from these "fire-breathing dragons" to hand-held devices that spectators can rent at the events, said Diamandis, who holds an aerospace degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a medical degree from Harvard.
Plans call for 10 race teams to compete next year in four races, at sites to be determined. Pilots racking up the most points will advance to semifinals in September at the Reno Air Races in Nevada, and then to October finals at the X Prize Cup in New Mexico. Prize money hasn't been set.
Races are expected to last as long as 90 minutes. Although pilots will be racing the clock, they will take off in pairs and sometimes fly within 50 feet of each other as they climb, dive and careen along mile- high courses plotted by satellite navigation systems, Whitelaw said.
They will pilot identical "Mark-1 X-Racers," $1 million machines weighing 1,500 pounds without fuel. Designed by XCOR and Velocity Aircraft, they will trail brilliant yellow flames as they burn liquid oxygen and kerosene. The racers will have four minutes' worth of fuel, so the pilots' ability to glide between bursts of rocket power will be crucial. So will the pit stops.
There is no throttling power up or down, as with jet planes.
"It's instant-on," said Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard, an F-16 pilot in the Air Force Reserves and a partner in the first race team named by the league.
They will pilot identical "Mark-1 X-Racers," $1 million machines weighing 1,500 pounds without fuel. Designed by XCOR and Velocity Aircraft, they will trail brilliant yellow flames as they burn liquid oxygen and kerosene. The racers will have four minutes' worth of fuel, so the pilots' ability to glide between bursts of rocket power will be crucial. So will the pit stops.
There is no throttling power up or down, as with jet planes.
"It's instant-on," said Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard, an F-16 pilot in the Air Force Reserves and a partner in the first race team named by the league.
"The esprit de corps, the band of brothers who fly and fight together--we're going to bring that to racing," said Don "Dagger" Grantham Jr., a fellow F-16 pilot who is Rickard's partner in the Leading Edge Rocket Racing team.
Despite the Top Gun swagger, X-Racers actually will be a whole lot slower than F-16 Fighting Falcons, which can go twice the speed of sound. An X-Racer might hit 275 mph, only about 55 mph faster than an Indy 500 car.
"Speed's not something you really want," Diamandis said. "If there's a blur in front of you, it's not very fun."
The Leading Edge team from Arizona yesterday presented a $100,000 check to the league as a down payment on an X-Racer, and is seeking corporate backers for the estimated $2 million annual cost for a vehicle and crew. Whitelaw called that a bargain compared with NASCAR racing, which he said can cost teams $18 million per season.
Nine more race teams are being sought to round out the league. The deadline for applicants is March 31.
Diamandis said he anticipates many venues will bid for race sites. A weekend of rocket racing could bring tens of millions of dollars to a host community, he said.
The league's Web site (www.rocketracingleague.com) is running a contest to name the first X-Racer.
Rocket races will be more thrilling than motor racing, Diamandis said. But he hopes any crashes will be virtual, courtesy of game designer Ramy Weitz of PixelPlay. Video games and interactive competitions should hit the market before the real rockets blast off next year, said Weitz, who devised technology for superimposing first- down markers on football telecasts.
John Griffin, a spokesman for the Indy Racing League, said he doubts the rocket venture will steal fans from motor sports, which he described as a $5 billion to $6 billion industry. Rather, he predicted, rocket racing could complement auto racing.
"If there's an opportunity for us to work together, it's probably something we'd be open to," Griffin said.
Advisers to the Rocket Racing League include former space shuttle commander Rick Searfoss and Erik Lindbergh, grandson of pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh.
The league must satisfy Federal Aviation Administration regulations. At their closest point, X-Racers will zoom within 500 feet of spectators, said Sean Tucker, an aerobatics pilot who is helping devise safety standards for the league.
Fans may want to bring earplugs.
"The sound will be unbelievable," said Tucker, who has performed at the Sussex County Air Show. "Like the sound of a 747, but louder."