A rocket in my pocket
As we tried to map out in today's Daily News column about the upcoming new Rocket Racing League, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see there's an inherent element of danger for both the fans watching and the pilots competing. But founder Peter Diamandis says the FAA will be there every step of the way to make sure all safety measures are taken.
That said, try to imagine what the real will look like when the RRL launches next fall after watching this animated video from the Bridenstine Rocket Racing Team website (courtesy of the RRL) of what a typical race could look like, both from the grandstand view and in the air:
So how does RRL president and CEO Granger Whitelaw pitch this to those who may want to race?
"Just think about when you're in a stadium for a big sporting event, and just after the National Anthem, they do a flyover with a bunch of military planes," said Whitelaw, who used to own an IndyCar racing team. "You could be at the biggest race in America, but when those planes fly over, no one cares about the cars on the ground. My friend, trust me -- we all know the future is in the sky."
As you can see from a prototype X-Racer, each weighs about 2,000 pounds and carries a 1,500-pound-thrust rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene. The single-pilot, first-generation Mark-1 X-Racer is expected to reach maximum speeds of more than 320 mph (500 kilometers per hour).
Whitelaw also knows the value of a big Hollywood production in putting this league together. One of many gigs during his mergers-and-acquisitions career was fund raising for independent film companies created by Steven Segal and Jim Belushi. Recently, Whitelaw added movie producer Bob Weiss to the RRL board. Weiss, who has produced 17 movies including "The Blues Brothers," "The Naked Gun," and "Scary Movie," was also a sonsultant to the Boeing Corporation and a principal in a consortium that produces and distributes space-related multimedia educational and entertainment programs.
Again, the addition of Arthur Smith, the former head of programming at Fox Sports Net, is a key element to getting the mainstream viewers hooked on the RRL once it's up and flying.
"Our production company has had a lot of success with reality shows," said Smith, who has done such projects as "The Swan," "Hell's Kitchen" and "Skating with the Stars." "But once a sports guy, always a sports guy. And this is definitely a sports series. It's a videogame come to life. The planes are painted with great colors, and the pilots are the real heroes -- astronauts, Air Force pilots.
"I just remember my father telling me about how amazing flying is, and in his 80-plus years, he's seen the progress of it almost from the start of travel advancements, and now he's going to see them racing. You think about how air shows are so popular, and they draw these huge crowds of 30,000 or more. This is even better, with the planes taking off and landing and refueling right in front of the grandstands."
Smith's company has been using computer-generated animation to try to figure out how to cover this race on the ground and in the air, with as many as five cameras in each cockpit for the racers to use -- known as "heads-up" views -- and the fans to enjoy.
With New Mexico as the main base, the RRL has a satellite office on Wilshire Blvd., in Santa Monica, as well as in Boston and New York, and much of the racer plane construction takes place in Mojave. Southern California will also be targeted as a place to hold preliminary RRL races, said Granger, but sites have not been established as yet.
Comments
Astronauts? Air Force pilots?
You guys are being scammed...
Check out:
www.ousterhout.net
Make sure to read the "Captain Zoom" story.
This tells the story of one of the RRL pilots, Jim Campbell, a.k.a. James Richard Campbell, a.k.a. "Captain Zoom," to his detractors.
Make sure to read NTSB SE-4661 in regards to Langhorne Bond, Administrator of the FAA, obtaining the surrender of Mr. Campbell's Medical Certificate for Severe Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia.
Then read the rest of the website and understand that this guy is a poser, a fake, an imposter, a liar, and is a danger tohimself and others. He has no business at the controls of a General Aviation aircraft, let alone, a Rocket Racer.
By Law, his Airman's Certificate and Medical Certificate should be pulled, as anyone diagnonsed with a "Severe" personality disorder ~ as Campbell was in 1980 ~ is forbidden to hold the minimum Medical Certificate for Class II, II and I Airman's certificates.
And still the FAA and NTSB allow this mental defective to fly and endanger others.
Make it a point to note his thirty-plus year history of general and criminal misconduct, including stalking and terrorizing his fiance and his ex-wife.
And Diamandis indicates that the FAA is going to make sure the RRL is going to be safe?
Campbell has criticized the FAA, particularly with his book about the Bob Hoover case, and they're either afraid of him, or want him dead, or both, and what better way to get rid of this guy than by allowing him to kill himself in a Rocket Racer, as though they "had nothing to do with it" though they allow him to fly in violation of US Law (Federal Aviation Regulations ~ FARs)!
Diamandis refuses to respond to my online newspapers demands for interview and a review of the logbooks and records of Campbell, who claims 17,000 flying hours in 1100 aircraft since the age of thirteen.
All lies, just like the lie he tells about being a "graduate of the National Test Pilots School" at Mojave. Campbell took a one week orientation course for journalists, not the full course for aspiring test pilots, and Diamandis ~ fraud that he is ~ is more than happy to parade this clown in front of the media while refusing to acknowledge complaints about Campbell and his prowess as a pilot, and further, his impersonation of a Journalist.
Campbell has even impersonated a doctor in Tulsa, Oklahoma; a 747 pilot for Japan Air Lines; an African Mercy Mission pilot; an American who fought the Russians in Afghanistan; a Purple Heart Vietnam Veteran; a witness to the My Lai massacre, and much of this is in NTSB SE-4661.
Diamandis himself has been sent a link to the website at www.ousterhout.net and refuses to respond.
They're all a bunch of frauds and fakes. Even the Daily News indicated that the "Rocket Scientists" at the RRL "envisioned" that the public would be able to see the flame from the rocket, though the aircraft will be too high up to be seen by the naked eye, thus the competition must be televised.
If those Rocket Scientists can't state for sure what the people will see, well maybe they don't know their rocket from a hole in the ground. And who wants to travel to an event from half way around the globe, to watch the event on TV when they should be able to Pay Per View.
Then the mainstream media feeds these frauds to the Public as "good guys" and these billionaire boyz club types rip off the unsuspecting for their money.
Take a good look at them...they're promoting an individual who claimed service in Vietnam, along with wounds, that never occurred since he admits in NTSB SE-4661 that he never stepped foot in Vietnam and the only wounds he ever received were "from a tree."
And..they're promoting this liar and fake in his own right, this fraud, over more qualified veterans and even disabled veterans, not to mention, there's not a single woman chosen to compete as a pilot in the RRL, and there are no shortage of qualified candidates, including Air Force Reserve and active duty veterans, like Mary Dilda, of AT-6 Air Racing fame; the civilian pilot Patty Wagstaff and many many more.
When can we expect you to investigate the facts before you posts these stories, Mainstream Media?
Farther Out?
I don't think so...
More like "Same Old Same Old..."
Posted by: Mark S. "Bear" Daniels | June 8, 2007 01:15 AM