Rocket planes to ship for first demo race

[Indenturedebtor]

Source: New Scientist

The first head-to-head race of two rocket-powered planes is planned for next week, but only one plane may take to the air.

The Rocket Racing League – a company founded by X-Prize Foundation chairman Peter Diamandis and winning Indy 500 car race team owner Granger Whitelaw – aims to pit two planes against each other at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as early as 29 July.

The two rocket racers' engines are being designed by Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas, and by XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, California. XCOR's plane is ready, but the Armadillo plane is still awaiting a flight permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

....

Whitelaw hopes giving teams the option of two different engines will promote innovation. "A big part of this is not the sport and entertainment side of it, but all the different types of technology we're testing," he says. Both of the competing firms are also developing rockets for low-Earth orbit flights.

Read more: http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14383-rocket-planes-to-ship-for-first-demo-race.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news10_head_dn14383

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Not a fan of racing anything that can't be powered with food, but I am a fan of developing space technology so good on em.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Well...

Very powerful rocket engines can be powered by Hydrogen Peroxide. Just thought I would mention that.

[sofa king]

2. Armadillo Aerospace is owned by Carmack The Magnificent.

John Carmack, that is, creator of id Games and Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.

http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home

Cool videos to be seen there.