Given the fact that this will be the last newsletter of 2006, it will recap the year's events; helping to highlight the progress of the project for the year, while simultaneously bringing many of our new 800 Club members up to speed. (Hey, I think it's a great pun; after all, that's what we're all about!)

Don't forget, most of these events listed here also have a Photo Gallery to view.

This past year started out with very sad news; Col. Brian Simpson - USAF, passed away in January after his battle with cancer. Col. Simson was the pivotal individual at Edwards AFB who understood the essence of what our project was about; taking on challenges despite the odds. He made it possible for the NAE™ to conduct test runs on Rogers Dry Lake next to Edwards AFB in the fall of the previous year. For his contribution to the project's forward progress, we are eternally indebted to him. He is missed.

Amidst weekend work parties of doing engine removal and replacements, along with various systems upgrade work, the team made an appearance with the car at the Northwest Aviation & Trade Show on the Puyallup Fairgrounds. While there, Scott Crossfield, keynote speaker for this event, came to the NAE™ on display and talked with the team about the days, decades ago, when he flew this F-104 jet at Edwards AFB. He told us how he landed 56-073 (its tail #); performing about 100 dead stick landings in it, to train for later flying the X-15, for which 56-0763 was a chase plane at Edwards.

Only two months later, in April, the sad news of Scott Crossfield's demise in a lightning storm, while flying his private aircraft in the southeast, came to the team. We considered ourselves very fortunate to have had the privilege and honor of meeting him earlier. A tribute to him was posted on the site that month acknowledging his contribution to aviation, as well as his relentless promotion of aviation education.

During the spring, as continued work on improvements to the car's systems went on, a few new sponsor came on board with the project; Olympus Industrial and their high speed video equipment, Space Age Control and their transducer equipment, filled needed components for moving the project forward. The legend of land speed racing, Richard Noble - project director of the existing record holder vehicle, the ThrustSSC - joined our 800 Club at this time as well.

Approaching the beginning of summer, some team individuals had some notable experiences - Garlow met Mike Melvile - the first private astronaut - at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, while the team's medical specialist, Patrick Smith, completed his RN training. Work on the NAE™ was wound up and the car and team prepared for another test session in California. After a couple of runs on El Mirage Dry Lake, mother nature threw the team a curve ball and rained us out. We then moved down to Burbank and the scheduled appearance at the Aerobooks/Autobooks store on Magnolia Blvd., thanks to the hard work of Doug Schwartz, the team's PR/Sponsorship specialist.

On the second of the two days in the store's parking lot, we were honored with the appearance of none other than Jay Leno, host of the NBC Tonight Show. After touring the car with driver/owner Ed Shadle, he made a small contribution to the donation jar and offered to write an article in his monthly column for the Popular Mechanics magazine. Lots of pictures were taken and hands were shaken. What a great guy!

Through summer, Team NAE™ made three local appearances, but the car remained in the hangar while work was done on both hydraulic and electrical systems for improvements. August saw Ed and his entourage of buddies make their way to attend the annual Speed Week at Bonneville's Salt Flats. There Shadle ran his Roadster, but the highlight of the week was getting to meet Andy Green - current record holder in the ThrustSSC - and the JCB DieselMax team and car. Also, Ron Ayers was there as a consultant to the project and acquaintances were reestablished and sharing of information abound between racers.

Summer was capped off with an invitational appearance of the NAE™ at the annual LeMay Auto Museum's Marymount Academy site in Spanaway, WA. While there, the team talked with the crowds, but the NAE™ did the real crowd pleasing; it conducted two engine tests and gave them some real loud noise! Monitoring of the electrical system was conducted simultaneously and new information was gleaned.

Fall began with the team's annual BBQ at the Wallace residence in University Place, WA. Then, after a few work parties where more hydraulic work and an engine throttle adjustment were done by crew chief Bill Eckberg, the NAE™ made an appearance at one of its local sponsors in Puyallup - Hydraulic Repair & Design. This event proved very helpful to the team's attempt to tackle the issue with the hydraulic problem we were experiencing, with the input from H-R-D's President, Nick Neslund.

As fall went into full swing, work on the car continued. In mid-October, Jay Leno's article in Popular Mechanics was published. The team was very pleased with Jay's contribution of bringing the project the exposure so important to a massive endeavor like this. At the same time, Steve Fossett, of around the world ballooning fame, announced his plans to modify the Spirit of America he'd purchased from Craig Breedlove, and possibly go for the land speed record in the fall of '07. How ironic, while Fossett's got the money, but little time, we've got no real money and have spent a total of nine years thus far! We press on for that elusive sponsorship that includes capital to bring it all together.

Late fall proved a real "roller coaster" for team member's emotions, as it suffered a great loss. Ed Drumheller II, team deceleration specialist, passed away after battling with cancer, on November 9th; just as the car was heading to southern California. At the same time, two new sponsors partnered with us; Wolfe Air Aviation Limited & ITR North America joined the growing ranks of companies supporting our bid for the record. In mid-November, the NAE™ appeared at the Aerospace Testing Expo in Anaheim, California where hundreds of aviation related companies were also on display. The three days there on the show floor across from our sponsors - PCB Peizotronics' - booth, proved to be the most productive for attracting new and very needed sponsors from companies that will provide the project with critical serivces and opportunties to make it leap ahead in its goal to go for the record.

Two days after the expo concluded,the team and car met once again at El Mirage to conduct tests. These tests, while only going 225mph, were mainly to verify suspicions that some key parts in the hydraulic system needed changing out. Two weeks later, the team went back to Yorba Linda, California for an invitational appearance at the John Force Holiday Auto Show at the J.F. Racing facility.

A team of four separate companies which work collaboratively, - Dassault Systemes, FARO® Technologies, Verisurf Software, & INCAT® - met at the JFR site the day before to digitally map the entire car's body into a CAD program. This will later be completed for CFD analysis and wind tunnel model making purposes next year. The accomplishment of this work was a quantum leap forward for the project, as it will provide it with greater opportunities and accelerate it more rapidly toward our ultimate goal; going for the record!