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May 24, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Another busy day at the hanger as Tim Finley, Rich Pengelley, John Winchester, Eric Helpenstell, Von Armstrong, Sam Yellowbird, Omar Chramosta, Russ Garlow, Gino Sanfilippo, John Zambrano, Dave Selby, Jon Higley, Keith Zanghi and Ed Shadle spent this past weekend working on the North American Eagle™ in preparation of our massive appearance at the Black Rock Desert this summer.

John Zambrano, Dave, Von and Keith cut, welded, crimped, drilled, painted, and assembled two 20 foot tall masts to support the antenna system for our Tropos® Networks Ethernet System. Earlier this year Steve Wallace built a wooden mockup of a proposed system, which led to the final design we put together. Located every 2.5 miles, the 20 foot antennas will hold a Tropos Ethernet Network that will receive data being transmitted from the Eagle during each run. An onboard Tropos Ethernet Transmitter is located in the nose of the 56 foot long Eagle that sends the signals to the routers. John Winchester is working on windsocks to be installed on top of the masts. You can see in the photos above the rotating ring that will hold the windsocks.

Von, Gino, Omar, Rich, Eric and Ed worked on the Lev X Tractor in preparation for this summer's test session. The guys at one time had their hands on just about everything including air ride seats, front doors, steering pumps and even a nifty racing stripe which should add about 5 mph to the top speed!

Russ our resident graphic artist, touched up the Eagle's "beak" which had gotten damaged while working around the car. Jon and Ed reviewed some recent changes to the website. Jon finished work on our front wheel dolly that is used to move the Eagle around the hanger. A little known fact, the Eagle holds the record for the hardest car in the world to parallel park (!), so the dolly manufactured by McVay's Mobile Welding solves that problem.

Sam dropped off some more components for a new pit cart he and Keith are working on. When done it will look very similar to the Snap-On unit above.

Earlier in the week, as part of our NAE™ Classroom Outreach Program, Jon, Russ, and Bernard McVay traveled throughout Washington and Oregon giving presentations on the Eagle to our young adults. On May 21st Bernard and Jon visited Crystal Springs Elementary school in Bothell, WA where they gave separate presentations to three 6th grade classes. On May 20th Russ and Jon traveled to Eugene, Oregon's Cal Young Middle School where they presented to 6th & 8th grade Science class students in Mr. Kresko's room.

Durring the same week The Science Channel aired our Discovery Channel Show, Mega Builders: World's Fastest Wheels.

Since the original air date of September 22, 2005 the show has been seen all over the world and has aired in the United States over 100 times!

The one hour show directed by Dugald Maudsley features the activities leading up to our first successful test run. The show follows the team as they travel to Magna-Force in Port Angeles, WA and see the remarkable LevX® braking system. Then on to Canada to Eagle Machine, Inc to see the building of the all metal wheels and finally to S&S Turbine Services in Fort St John BC where the team performs engine test on the 42,500 hp LM 1500 Turbojet.

The North American Eagle has been featured in over eight television shows. Recently NBC / Universal film the team for a possible pilot.

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!

On this memorial day weekend in America, we would like to recognize all the veterans on Team North American Eagle for their service to their country that allows projects like ours to exist. In no particular order: Omar Chramosta, Von Armstrong, Jon Higley, Bill Eckberg, John Zambrano, Dave Selby, Sean Rondestvedt, John Drury, Gino Sanfilippo, Tom Pengelley, Rich Pengelley, and John Winchester.

Now, sad news on this Memorial Day weekend. Recently Team North American Eagle has been working with journalist / writer David Cohn on some upcoming magazine articles. His son Bruce, a pilot in the USAF, was engaged to be married to 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte.

On May 20th, Roslyn was killed near Kabul, Afghanistan of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. She had been in Afghanistan since February. She was due to return to Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii in August. Her mission in Afghanistan was to work with Afghan military officials, teaching them how to gather and interpret intelligence. CNN story on 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte

Our sincere condolences go out to the Schulte and Cohen Families and friends at this time.

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