ROCKET RACES IN THE SKY ANSARI X FOUNDER STARTS LEAGUE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer MOJAVE - Peter Diamandis Peter H. Diamandis (born 20 May 1961 in Bronx, New York) is considered a key American figure in the development of the personal spaceflight industry, having created many space-related businesses or organizations. , founder of the Ansari X Prize The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. , is starting up a rocket plane rocket plane n. 1. An aircraft powered by one or more rocket engines. 2. An aircraft designed to carry and launch rockets. racing league, and he has tapped a Mojave company to develop the first aircraft. Diamandis, who created the $10 million Ansari X Prize awarded last year for the first private manned spaceflights, announced the creation of the Rocket Racing League The Rocket Racing League is a proposed racing league that would use rocket powered aircraft. The formation of the league was announced by Granger Whitelaw two time Indy 500 winning team owner and Peter Diamandis, founder of the Ansari X-Prize, on October 3, 2005, in partnership - a sort of Grand Prix racing Grand Prix racing Automobile racing in which formula cars are run on closed highways or courses that simulate road conditions. Formula cars are open-wheel, open-cockpit, rear-engine vehicles and are generally smaller than those used in speedway races such as the Indianapolis in the sky. Diamandis envisions the league holding competitions across the United States, ending with finals each year in New Mexico at the X Prize Cup, a space expo and flight demonstration event he is starting up. The first race is scheduled for October 2006. ``The Rocket Racing League will inspire people of all ages to once again look up into the sky to find inspiration and excitement,'' said Diamandis, who co-founded the league with Granger Whitelaw, an Indianapolis 500 race car backer. The league has contracted with XCOR Aerospace of Mojave and Velocity, a Sebastian, Fla., company, to design and build the first racing planes. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. XCOR XCOR Cross-Correlation 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. While the racers will be based on the EZ-Rocket design, there will be differences. Instead of EZ-Rocket's two alcohol and liquid oxygen-fueled engines, each racer will be powered by a single engine fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene kerosene or kerosine, colorless, thin mineral oil whose density is between 0.75 and 0.85 grams per cubic centimeter. A mixture of hydrocarbons, it is commonly obtained in the fractional distillation of petroleum as the portion boiling off . The EZ-Rocket has a top speed of about 225 mph; the racers will hit speeds of 320 mph. Race courses will probably be two miles long and one mile wide at an altitude of about 5,000 feet. Each pilot will have an individual three-dimensional ``track'' in order to avoid collisions, league organizers said. Race organizers envision spectators tracking the progress of the racers by viewing each plane's bright engine flame and by watching large screen televisions. Organizers also envision having spectators watch the races with handheld devices with live video streams from cockpit cameras. ``Given the millions of fans who enjoy race car driving, and the wider audience enthralled en·thrall tr.v. en·thralled, en·thrall·ing, en·thralls 1. To hold spellbound; captivate: The magic show enthralled the audience. 2. To enslave. with humanity's next step into space, we are confident rocket racing will become a mainstream event in the decade to come,'' said Whitelaw, who will serve as league president. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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