Eagle's Lair
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2007: Year in Review

Below is Ed Shadle's recounting of the past year's events for the North American Eagle™ project.

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This past year was the project's 10th. It has seen some of its greatest advancements toward our goal; bringing with them a lot of elation, as well as disappointment.

In January we began a re-plumbing of our hydraulic system. Nick Nesland, President of Hydraulic Repair and Design, came to the hangar and spent an entire day creating a drawing of the hydraulic systems. From that, he made recommendations to modify our systems in order to get them to work properly.

March, we removed the steering/suspension system and began a redesign of that system.

By the end of April we knew we would get no help from a promised sponsorship to built the high speed wheels so we launched into it on a piece by piece approach.

Steve Green, owner of Eagle Machine, traveled to England to get a closeup view of the Thrust SSC wheels. He came back with the basic concept and we began drawing up the design. Upon Steve’s return, he and I began working up a rough design. I forwarded that to John Mittleider and he converted that in to a file that could be analyzed. After many trials and finite element analysis by John, we moved ahead with the wheel manufacturing process.

Keith, Steve and Libby Wallace and I were invited to be guest speakers at the Conference of Engineers in Las Vegas. We were a hit and sealed our agreement with Dassault Systemes to provide design software for our project.

I contacted Precision Aluminum products in Los Angeles after Steve Green primed the pump through his own business contacts with them.

I placed an order for the aluminum forgings for the wheels without any idea how I was going to pay for them.  I contacted Mark Moore, President of UREMET, another California based company, to sponsor and build the rear wheels.

Our new parachute guru, John Winchester, brought his Model A club out to visit the project. One member of that club, had some connections with the a transonic wind tunnel and knew quite a few aerodynamicists. Like ants to honey, they were attracted to the project and signed up to help us with the aerodynamics of the Eagle. Mike Thoe, Rex Walter and Ron Doll came on board.

B&I put up some money to help with the purchase of the aluminum forgings for the front and middle wheels while UREMET paid for the aluminum for the rear wheels and the very expensive bearings.

In June, Keith and I flew to Corona, California to meet with the president of the number 2 Energy drink company. In that meeting we all shook hands on a trial run sponsorship to cover our testing session scheduled for October. All was looking good and pieces were coming together.

Meanwhile, rebuilding of the front steering box was completed by McVay's Mobile Welding. Dave Gregory, owner of EPIC Hydraulic Repair modified the front suspension cylinder and Steve Green built the main steering system.

FARO came to the hangar and digitized more of the fuselage so the aerodynamics team would have better data to work with.

During this entire time, work was being done behind the scenes with design, analysis, redesign and building of the wheels, hubs, bearings, seals and brake assemblies. Eagle Machine and UREMET put in hundreds of hours getting the steering system and the wheel assemblies ready to roll. UREMET agreed to pay for the aluminum forgings for the rear wheels, 1244 lbs of aerospace grade aluminum!

In July, I made contact with Coverall Company, to see about getting a shelter for our test runs. Bob Shoemake, manager of the Coverall distributorship, Western Refinery Services, in Washington put together 7 Coverall dealers to purchase and donate a 64’ x 32’ x 18’ shelter for our upcoming test run.

I also made contact with Puget Sound Rope in Anacortes. John Winchester and I went to their offices and met with their president. He agreed to donate all the parachute riser lines we need in any size we need. Our riser lines can now sustain a snatch force of 51,000 lbs.

Meanwhile, in August, I purchased enough stainless steel to begin building the new parachute tubes for the high speed chutes. Eric McClain, a fellow Bonneville racer, volunteered his welding expertise and we created our first parachute can and successfully tested the air bag deployment device.

By September, things were coming together but small difficulties began getting large. The hub design needed remodeling, the bearings were hard to find and expensive, and turned out to be incorrect anyway. We had to build our own brake adapters, our own front brake rotor and so on. With all of us working endless hours, and much of it “head scratching” just trying to figure out solutions, we were approaching the deadline to load for our test run in October at Black Rock.

Hotel reservations were made, meals planned, transportation arranged, a semi borrowed from Interstate Woodproducts in Longeview, fuel for the jet picked up from Small and Sons, diesel for the trucks purchased, a film crew from CBC documenting our every movement and then…………!

An email arrived in my mailbox one hour before leaving at 5 AM. The number 2 energy drink company informed us they'd pulled their sponsorship!

We decided to go ahead with the trip and give it our best shot. The entire team volunteered to pay their own way. Our test session coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Thrust SSC team setting the existing record. Even though Steve Fossett had been lost for many weeks, the Sonic Arrow was brought out for a photo session. With the Thrust team there, the Sonic Arrow team present, Craig Breedlove, John Akroyd, and Rosco McGlashen spent time visiting with us and admiring our handy work.

Despite horrible wind and dust storms, we did get in two runs and successfully tested our steering modifications, new wheels and our new shelter system. What a trip! 

Upon returning from the Black Rock, Keith, Steve, Libby, Elaine and I went to Paris, France in November to be presenters at the European conference of engineers. We’re sure getting popular!

In December, we placed the NAE™ on display for the B&I Marketplace in south Tacoma. It was a cold and snowy day, but the crowd came by in their cars and looked at the Eagle through fogged up windows.

In 2008, we’re going to lay down some real speed runs. We’re currently looking at returning to Black Rock, if mother nature cooperates, or to another location in the southwest, that we are currently investigating.

This winter is going to be dedicated to sorting out our electrical system, understanding our aerodynamics, and developing our fairings and canard design. We’re getting close enough to smell victory!
 
Now all we need is a sponsor and help from Mother Nature!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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