Home of the North American Eagle - World Land Speed Challenger

Entries are in ascending order. (For those of you in Rio Linda, start at the bottom.)

November 2004 - Being that the North American Eagle™ has been eight years in the making as of this date, I've decided it's time to begin a journal to record my personal reflections about the events which will take place from here on out with the project's progress. Something to contribute to the record - for our fans, visitors and those who may look back in years to come on this project's development with interest in how we got it done and what happened along the way. After all, there's truth to the saying, "Joy is found not in reaching the destination, but in the journey along the way."

Want to read a story version of this project's progress; the ups and downs of how it all came about? Then use this link to check it out.

Summer has come and gone, lots of modifications have been done to the car, but our efforts to conduct another test session has once again encountered bureaucratic red tape. So, it appears yet another year has come and gone with no advancement in the project's testing.

To recap some of the major events which transpired during this last season; the successful test firing of the engine's afterburner on the 4th of July at the airport in Shelton, WA. Also, work on computational fluid dynamics has finally gotten under way in a serious fashion, now that a complete mapping of the body from nose to tail has been completed.

Work commenced on constructing both the rear suspension fairings for transonic speed testing, as well as the mid-wheel wells to help reduce dust accumulation. Several wire run replacements were made where needed and adjustments to the brakes and parachutes have been done.

Plans to conduct another test session, first in spring, then summer, and finally the fall, were foiled because our chosen test site in Southern California demanded user's fees we could not gather and pay. As a last minute effort to avoid this expensive cost, a hopeful attempt was made to partner with the Boy Scout troop on the site that would eliminate the fee. However, efforts to negotiate an agreement failed. So, Ed & Keith decided to wait until next spring or early summer when we'll head for a more remote eastern Nevada site that will provide the surface conditions we need, but increase the level of being "self-sufficient" at the location.

In the meantime, the process of acquiring the permits from the BLM, negotiating work on the access road regrade with a construction company and the state's D.O.T. bureaucracy will be pursued so that everything is done by the time the season for racing returns.

Well, a lot of time has transpired since any entries into this online journal and a lot of things have happened.

Over the winter various minor modification have been made to the car. Ed designed and installed a more ergonomic instrument panel. The engine was removed and a four line afterburner was installed on the engine.

Adjustments had to be made and the engine consequently had to be yarded and fiddled with to get it working right. Finally we were rewarded with a successful afterburner test just this last weekend.

The next critical step on the road to going for the record is to have the car re-mapped so that the data cloud will sync with the software program; enabling our aerodynamics team to gather data on how to cover the rear axle suspension for venturing into speeds in the transonic and supersonic ranges.

These tasks, however, are not the only remaining hurdles the project must overcome in order to take a shot at the record. As has always been our main concern - finding an adequate venue that is in good enough condition and has sufficient "real estate" to allow the car to reach record speeds and then return to a stop safely - is yet to be satisfactorily dealt with.

One venue which is costly requires a larger sum of capital than the project has available to hand over. The other venue, which wouldn't charge us to proverbial "arm & leg" to run on, has access issues which would require a minor "miracle" to acquire the proper equipment and crew that could make it possible for the two semi-trailers to get onto the site; not to mention the jumping through bureacratic "hoops" to have clearance to do so.

So, only time, persistence, persuation, and plenty of prayer will determine the ultimate outcome of where our summer test session and record attempt later in the fall will end up being.

Well, other than an engine change out recently, not a whole lot has been going on to report. We're negotiating again with the biggest bureaucracy the world has ever known just to try and get a venue for running this car where there's enough real estate to up to transonic speeds. If it isn't the military, it's the federal government. Sure, this kind of obstacle is expected when you need a place that remote, flat and suitable for running a jet car at near the speed of sound, but with the economy going sour lately, it seems that even our own government, supported by tax dollars, wants money to use the location! It seems to be a constantly complex dance we have to engage in.

Naturally, with the recession tightening its grip on business, money from sponsor who want to support us is equally difficult to acquire; making it all the more problematic to cover costs involved in the logistics of simply trying to pull off something so "high risk" as this venture is. I'm amazed that the project's managed to hold together as a team for this long with all the delays and setbacks. Yet, we still press on with the vision of it happening some day.

Should we successfully pusuade one of the two bureaucracies of waiving the fees (in the tens of thousands of dollars) and manage to get the required team members off work for long enough, we are hopeful we'll be able to get into the transonic speeds this summer and go for the record next fall. But, I'm not holding my breath given what we've encountered and experienced over the past several years trying to do this.

Interested in helping us make history and bring the record back to North America? Here's how!

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