Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

Featured Sponsors

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Present at today's work party were Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Jon Higley, Steve Wallace, Tim Finley, John Winchester, Omar Chramosta, Eric Helpenstell, Don Mitchell, John Drury and Chris Greene.

Ed and Keith were busy working on the parachute system, getting it ready for our next test session. The North American Eagle™ uses a low and high speed parachute system. The low speed chutes can only be deployed below 350 due to the high dynamic pressures. Thomas Aerospace has developed a new high speed parachute for us that can be deployed at the upper limits of our speed runs. We also have several high speed parachutes provided by Aerial Machine and Tool. We will use high speed video camera provided by Olympus Industrial to record the opening sequence. Their iSPEED 2 HG cameras can provide up to 33,000 fps ultra slow motion video analysis of the parachute deployment. We also use Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation RocketCam™  video cameras that will be mounted on the car at key positions to capture footage of our runs.  During our upcoming test session, five RocketCam™ cameras will be onboard the North American Eagle™.  If you would like to see the quality of these cameras, NASA has a video in HG using RocketCam™ cameras attached to the SRB (Shuttle Rocket Booster).  The incredible video shows the shuttle leaving the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, SRB separation and finally splashing down in the Atlantic.  The same cameras are used on the Eagle.

Steve and Tim worked on the electrical system. The Eagle has a combination of DC and AC voltages ranging from 220 VAC 3-Phase 400 Hz, 110 VAC 400 Hz, 110 VAC 60 Hz, 28 VDC and 12 VDC voltage distribution. The car uses a wide range of power sources including an UPS (Uninterruptable Power Systems) from Falcon® Electric (see photo above) providing back up power to our onboard computers. It is a real credit to their work keeping all the electrons flowing on the right path.

Jon and Chris helped Steve test the pressure sensors located throughout the car. These pressure ports measure local air pressures at known locations for later analysis. We use the values obtained during test runs to compare them with the theoretical pressures generated using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). We can then replace those with the actuals and get a more accurate model. Ron Doll, Rex Walter, and Mike Thoe make up the aerodynamics team. You can see the work that Ron has been doing using Don's models above.

Don stopped by the hanger to verify some key locations on the Eagle. Using a Lenovo ThinkStation at home loaded with Dassault Systèmes CATIA V5 and Geomagic Studio Software, Don is creating the solid models being used for our CFD studies.

During the pressure test, data from the car was being transmitted to Steve's Lenovo W700 ThinkPad via Tropos® Networks.  Their MetroMesh™ Technology provides wireless broadband connectivity for the Eagle. 

A Tropos® Networks MetroMesh™ mobile wireless router is placed in the Eagle's nose cone which will communicate with fixed Tropos MetroMesh routers on-site to deliver a wireless secure broadband network over the entire course.  As a result, Steve Wallace, our data acquisition engineer, will receive incoming data in real time at our command center.  Until now, with onboard Larson Davis data acquisition equipment from PCB Piezotronics delivering 3.2 million signals a second, team members had to wait till the run was complete to download data and begin the crucial post run analysis.

TheTropos Network partnership with Team North American Eagle™ provides us the ability to reduce our cycle time between runs plus increase driver, vehicle and spectator safety by enabling us real time operation.

John Winchester, our parachute specialist, is continuing work on the parachute system, but is looking for a software program that can provide him with information on parachutes measurements, loads, types, etc. for easy reference and is simple to use. If you know of any such program, please let the webmaster know.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Ed, Steve and Keith will be speaking at the Seattle Museum of Flight at the Puget Sound Materials Expo. This is event is being hosted by the Seattle Chapter of SAMPE (Society for The Advancement of Material and Process Engineering ) .

Following the show, Ed and Keith will hop on a plane to Savannah Georgia and give a presentation to Convergence 2009 Geomagic Conference. The two will present how Team North American Eagle™ uses innovation to build the world's most complex and fastest car.

In April Ed, Steve and Keith will present at COE 2009 Annual PLM Conference & TechniFair Seattle, WA April 19 - 22, 2009.

We invite you to add a comment, or remark, about our program or the site.

[Privacy Policy]