Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Rocket Racer's Unusual Attitudes

Flight testing of XCor Aerospace's Rocket Racer prototype has resumed this week, with longer flights and more aerobatics. Today's first flight featured multiple passes down runway 12 with rocket ignition over the numbers, a sharp pull up, and a maneuver, such as a roll, below.


Below, pilot Rick Searfoss pulls the racer into a graceful Immelmann turn.



All in all, it was quite a little show, and flight line crews at FTA as well as hangar construction crews at NTPS all stopped, watched and cheered. With the supposed public debut of the Racer at Oshkosh coming up soon, it appears that the folks at the Rocket Racing League have quite a spectacular crowd pleaser on their hands!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, Alan, that was Wednesday's _first_ flight. We've been busy...

-Doug Jones

Alan Radecki said...

You have indeed, and I just amended the text with that. I was gone by the time the afternoon flight took place. BTW, pass on to Harlock thanks for the Jupiter note...even its moons looked gorgeous!