Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

May 10, 1998 Update

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

With the sounds of sonic booms from nearby Edwards AFB and the frequent flyovers of a curious blackhawk helecopters from a nearby USMC Base, the North American Eagle™ (NAE) crew, consisting of Ron Norman, John Kung, Keith Zanghi and Ed Shadle, assembled on Coyote Dry Lake Bed to film a commercial for The SONY Corporation.

The Cente Service Corporation, located in Tokyo, Japan had asked to use the NAE™ in a commercial to promote the sales of a new Sony Flat Trinitron computer display screen. The commercial will be aired in Japan beginning the end of June and will run up to six months duration in 30 second segments.

On Tuesday the team went to the Mojave Airport to perform some mechanical checks to make sure the car was ready for the filming. The team, true to its nature, had come prepared to overcome many problems with the vehicle. It had been stored all winter in the trailer, the owner/keeper of the jet had forgotten to pickle the fuel system therefore the fuel controller was full of Jet A which had turned to jelly. The 60 or so gallons of jet fuel left in the fuel tank had slowly leaked out of the tank, saturating the plywood the 24 ply tires were sitting on and ruined the tires. Cleanup had not been done from the runs last fall at Mojave and sealing of the cockpit had not been accomplished either. That meant we had a great deal of work to conduct in only days.

Al Hansen of Mojave graciously lent us the use of his hanger to roll the car out. Al provides the movie industry with military aircraft for films such as Jurasic Park. Amongst four Huey Helicopters, the NAE crew change tires, replace and repack chutes, got the fuel controller and stators timed and a dozen other things. The crew came through with flying colors and finished final preparations around 2 PM, filled the car and onboard tanks with Jet A fuel and headed to the Coyote Dry Lake bed, some two hours down the road. We worked long days with only 4 hours sleep each night and the mission was accomplished on schedule. What a crew!

The following day, the filming began. Because the process of the shoot is proprietary, we cannot tell you any of the specifics, but we can tell you the Cente Service Corporation is a group of professionals who work hard and tirelessly. The filming ended about 7:30 PM, and the crew called it a "wrap." The highlight of the day was when the entire crew took a group picture.

It was a long three days, with very little sleep, but when it was all over we all had a sense of accomplishment and Cente Service Corporation and Sony were pleased as punch!

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