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July 7, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today's weather began with promise; calm, cool, and sunny. Over the course of hours it appeared that the threat of wind had passed and would not be a problem. However, after mid-day the situation changed for the worse as the wind came back again - something which obviously is a constant issue to deal with here at Black Rock where there is not a tree for miles in any direction and wind is free to howl and kick up any loose dust lying around.

The team got the car ready early and we were able to tow it out to conduct an engine test. Shortly after noon the car made an initial test run of the course. Present to watch the proceedings were representatives of our sponsors from INTEL (Alan Frost & Bryce Sanders), Steve Small of Small & Sons, as well as guest Victor Sloan of Victor Aviation who was gracious in allow us to use his truck as a stand in fire vehicle after Keith's truck ended up being out of comission.

After a few minor glitches Ed was able to run the NAE™ down the designated course to check out how the surface felt amidst growing gusts of wind and dust. Traveling slowly, Ed encountered bumpy and soft playa conditions which generated high rolling resistance over three miles. After the car was recovered and towed back to the WRS Cover-All shelter, the team called it a day and went into Gerlach to freshen up and get a meal at Bruno's Cafe'.

Three students from Embry-Riddle University, at Prescott, Arizona, drove for twelve hours to our site at Black Rock to observe and talk with the team. These gentlemen came to observe and ask questions because they are embarking on a project to build a jet dragster to beat the speed record of the Embry-Riddle, Daytona team of 330 mph. One of the three students, Carson Thill, is not only a senior engineering student, but is the nephew of Phineas Anderson, one of our 800 Club members who was present at our last test session while here at Black Rock in '07. We are pleased to have them join us and look forward to helping them learn what it will take to accomplish their goal.

Tomorrow: Wednesday will be spent getting needed work done on various systems and, depending on how much time it takes to get those task completed, we hope to get another run in as well. Also, we'll be featuring our newest team member - our female Firefighter/EMT. So, be sure to check back for more news on our test session tomorrow.

On Television

We continue to talk with a half dozen television production companies interested in doing a documentary on our upcoming test session.

The North American Eagle™ has been featured in over eight television shows and every major television network. Recently NBC / Universal filmed the team for a possible pilot.

On the Newsstands

This week the project made the front cover of Desktop Engineering magazine. You can read the David Cohn story describing the engineering behind the Eagle, and some of the people who make it happen.

On the newsstands is an article on the project in the June 2009 issue of FLY RC magazine. The very popular magazine can be found at most grocery stores and all book stores.

We know a lot of our fans are on facebook. Now the North American Eagle™ is on facebook! In fact many of our team members are also! It is just another great way to let everyone know what we're up to. We have many of our latest Power-On systems test videos up on the site. Just type in North American Eagle and you will find us! Tell your friends! It's fun!

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

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