Two former US fighter pilots have become the first team chosen to compete in an Indy 500-like race involving rocket-powered aeroplanes.
Robert 鈥淏obaloo鈥� Rickard and Don 鈥淒agger鈥� Grantham, Jr 鈥� both veteran US Air Force F-16 pilots 鈥� have paired up to form a team called Leading Edge Rocket Racing. The team is the first to be chosen for a series of future 鈥渁ir鈥� races being organised by the recently formed Rocket Racing League.
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The team will be one of at least 10 expected to compete in a series of about six races across the US in 2007. Each race 鈥渢rack鈥� will be about 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) long, 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) wide and will extend 5000 feet (1.5 kilometres) into the atmosphere.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have barriers like buildings or hills or trees, so we can really paint our race track in whatever design we want,鈥� says Granger Whitelaw, chief executive officer of the Rocket Racing League, based in Las Cruces, New Mexico, US. The competitors鈥� flights will be staggered for safety and they will use special visors which project a visual display of rings in front of them, through which they have to fly through to see their own lanes in the tracks, says Whitelaw.
Plumes of flame
The racers will fly in rocket-powered planes called Mark-1 X-Racers, which are based on a flight-tested plane called the EZ Rocket, which is designed by XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California, US.
But unlike the EZ Rocket, which fuels its engine with liquid oxygen and alcohol, the Mark-1 X-Racers will use liquid oxygen and kerosene. That combination provides 2.5 times more thrust and will emit bright plumes of flame, unlike the near-transparent alcohol flame of the EZ Rocket. 鈥淭he race will be an hour-and-a-half-firework display in the sky,鈥� Whitelaw told New 杏吧原创.
鈥淭he prospect of competing against our peers, under rocket power and through a virtual track in the sky is thrilling,鈥� Rickard said in a statement. 鈥淭he roar of the rocket and a 20-foot trailing flame will redefine the concept of air racing.鈥�
Million dollar prize
The public will see a demonstration flight of the Mark-1 X-Racer at the X Prize Cup event in Las Cruces in October 2006, and the Rocket Racing League is asking people to enter a competition to name the racer on its website, .
The first actual races will take place in 2007. Each competitor will receive points for how well they fly 鈥� and how well they conserve their four minutes鈥� worth of fuel 鈥� in each of the six races. Then, the team that has amassed the most points will win the top prize, which Whitelaw says will be more than $1 million.
Two of the races will take place in Reno, Nevada, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. But the Rocket Racing League is requesting proposals from other cities for the remaining four races. Whitelaw says the league is in talks with a number of other countries 鈥� including Singapore, Dubai, France and Australia 鈥� about holding some of the races there, probably beginning in 2009.
