Posted on 10/29/2007 9:24:41 AM PDT by BenLurkin
MOJAVE - A fledgling rocket plane racing league has announced the addition of three more teams, bringing its total to six.
The Rocket Racing League, which will fly aircraft built in Mojave, announced the additions of Rocket Star Racing, Team Extreme Rocket Racing and Canada-based Beyond Gravity Rocket Racing. They join existing teams Bridenstine Rocket Racing, Santa Fe Racing and Thunderhawk Rocket Racing.
"Our goal has been to bring diverse international teams to the league with highly skilled world-class pilots and flight crews coming from both civilian and military backgrounds," said Granger Whitelaw, company co-founder and chief executive officer.
Rocket Star Racing is led by Todd White, a former Navy test pilot who has logged 3,000-plus flight hours in 30 different types of aircraft, including the F-4, F-15, F-16 and F-18, Team Extreme Rocket Racing is being led by an active duty Navy pilot, Lt. Bryan Schwartz, who has logged more than 1,600 flight hours and has made more than 120 aircraft carrier landings.
Beyond Gravity Rocket Racing is led by Canadian team owner Brian Feeney, perhaps best known to aerospace enthusiasts as one of the competitors in the Ansari X Prize competition. Feeney runs a business called DreamSpace Group, which is geared toward manned spaceflight technology development, space tourism and rocket-based sports and entertainment events.
The league has contracted with XCOR Aerospace of Mojave and Velocity, a Sebastian, Fla., company, to design and build the first racing planes. XCOR will base the design of the first racers on its EZ-Rocket plane, a Long-EZ experimental aircraft modified to carry two rocket engines. XCOR will build the racers with airframes provided by Velocity.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
Bump. These guys should talk to Red Bull or one of their competitors about sponsoring a league and season.
Great pics. Thanks!
Wow. Five lousy names? That’s the best you can do? /ribbing /kidding /tongue-in-cheek
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