Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

March 10, 2007

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Present at today's work party were Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Jon Higley, Russell Garlow, Bill Eckberg, Steve & Libby Wallace, Sean Rondestvedt, Tim Finley, Meeko, Marty Schenck, John Drury, Rich Pengelley, Von Armstrong and Omar Chramosta. Lots of work was done on the engine, while one of the younger team members made a surprise announcement.

The first and primary order of business today was to jack up the NAE™ and partially remove the engine. The purpose of this activity was to conduct preventative maintenance. Bill and Sean performed a visual check of the engine's exterior, while an internal inspection was performed later in the day. Bill, Tim, Rich, Sean and Russell all worked together to change out a hydraulic pressure tranducer, switch some oil lines and route some new wires for grounding a new oil temperature sending unit mounted on the engine.

Steve was busy working on controller equipment at his bench while his wife, Libby, kept team morale high. Throughout the day, Tim's dog, Meeko, was busy standing guard over the hangar, and modeling the new NAE™ Gear hat, as the team performed maintenance operations.

Sean announced that he was married two weeks ago, in a private ceremony, to his long-time girlfriend, Karah. The team sincerely wishes Sean and Karah a long and happy marriage.

The internal inspection of the engine was performed by James Bittner, from Olympus NDT (Olympus Industrial), with the help of Sean. Using an iPLEX MX Olympus Borescope, James and Sean were able reach deep into the front of the S&S Turbine Services engine and inspect the 17 compressor sections. When finished, James brought out the Olympus NORTEC 500 D Eddy Current instrument and proceeded to check for cracks on key structural members around the car. Olympus is one of our sponsors supporting our project with innovative NDT inspection equipment.

Progress continues on our bi-metal wheels. The titanium / aluminum wheels look very similar to the wheels pioneered by Craig Breedlove on the Spirit of America car, but vary greatly in design. Craig utilized a carbon fiber "tire" sandwiched between aluminum center sections. Through extensive ( and expensive) FEA (Finite Element Analysis), this design won out over all others as the most reliable and strongest design. These wheels will be built at Eagle Machine in Abottsford, B.C.

The team is pioneering a high performance parachute system that will be based on a 17 foot supersonic ring slot conical parachute. To mitigate the opening shock, the parachute will be "reefed" down to about 8 foot diameter when it initially opens. Then, pyrotechnic delay devices will initiate, cutting the "reefed" line and allowing the parachute to open fully. This technique will minimize the opening shock to a couple of 2 g openings, rather than one 4 g deceleration shock on the driver. The entire package will be "shot" out of the parachute container using what is called a mortar tube, similar in design to the Apollo Spacecraft. This unique system was developed by the late Ed Drumheller II.

A team meeting was held to discuss the status of various developing aspects of the project. A lot of discussion centered around our upcoming test session. We are seriously considering doing some subsonic test runs at the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats. The area is visually one of the most beautiful spots in the country; making for good material for shooting footage for our Landspeed Productions shoots planned during this time.

Team North American Eagle™ is pleased to announce that The Science Channel aired our one hour television program Mega Builders: Worlds Fastest Wheels  three times on Friday March 9th.

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 aluminum wheels, and finally to S&S Turbine Services in Fort St. John, BC where the team performs an engine test on the 42,500 hp LM 1500 Turbojet.

Wrapping up the day, the engine was inserted back in and the tail cone was put back on over it. Next weekend will be spent reconnecting everything and moving on to working on the front steering box.

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