Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

November 5, 1997

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Over two years ago I became involved with the American Eagle One project. At the time, Gary Swenson and Rick Kikes were the two owners with George Allen, project manager and Dwight Middendorf, accountant. Volunteer members included Michelle Tinker, Jon Higley, Keith Zanghi and several others. The American Eagle One had been repaired after the spectacular incident on a drag strip when Gary had overrun the stopping area and adventured out into the tundra. The vehicle had been repainted and was on display at the Mild to Wild Autoshow at the Tacoma Dome. Because of my interest in this project and my background in racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats I volunteered to be on the team. Little did I know at the time how this volunteer would eventually become so consumed by this project.

Gary had answered an advertisement by the New York International Autoshow for interesting displays. Soon he asked me to lead the project to get the AE1 to New York and seek out the media attention we thought to be necessary to attract sponsorship. I soon found myself involved in a project with no funding and a commitment to the New York International Autoshow. George, Dwight and Gary came upon a solution, to sell shares in the project. John Kung and I each purchased a $5000. share and that was enough to fund our trip to New York City. The trip was a great success in terms of publicity. We made it onto LIVE! with Regis and Kathie Lee show three days in a row, we were a featured attraction at the Javitts Center and even presented a parachute to the Japanese People on Fugi Television, viewed by over 14.5 million people. I had set up an appearance at the first Muroc Reunion at Edwards AFB on the return trip to the West Coast and that also went very well. After returning to Tacoma, we waited at the E-mail terminal and listened for the phone to ring. No sponsors! I packaged video tapes, photos and press kits to send to contacts we had made. No sponsors!

September 1996: After four months passed, the AE1 still sitting in the trailer. I began pressing for activity. Keith Zanghi, John Kung and I decided there was no use waiting another day. We started the ball rolling by making contact with the show circuit. I contacted the US Air Force and started the design of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. Soon we had bookings for Washington DC, The Meadowlands, The Canadian International Autoshow and the potential for many others. I had been sending invitations to Tim Allen and Jay Leno for a ride in the AE1. Keith assumed responsibility for development of our new web site and we named it landspeed.com. We brainstormed up a new name for the AE1 and renamed it North American Eagle™ (NAE) to honor our neighbors and supporters to the North, Canada. We made trips to Edwards AFB (out of our own pockets) to work through the red tape of the CRDA being built by Kurt Beuhler of the USAF. We were scheduled to appear at the Edwards AFB open house and airshow with the Budweiser Race Team. Unfortunately, Gary had misgivings and canceled our appearance two days before the show, much to the dismay of the Air Force. That would come back to haunt us later. Gary announced to us that he would have no more involvement with the project and turned management over to me with Rick as the primary owner.

November 1996: we were getting the vehicle ready for its trip to the East Coast. We scheduled two test fire sessions at the Spanaway Airport. Rick canceled because he was sure the vehicle would fire OK. That would come back to haunt us also. We left for Washington DC with new decals, new seat belts and fire suits provided by Security Race Products, Renton Wa. Keith, John and I took time off work and away from our families during the holidays to attend the autoshow. When the Wa DC show was complete, Keith drove the truck and trailer to the Secaucus, New Jersey for the International Showcase Expositions Autoshow and flew home. John Kung flew out for the show setup and attended the first half of the show while Cameron (my son) and I burned more vacation time to attend the last half. At the end of that show we loaded the NAE™ into the trailer in 5 degree weather and started a 15 hour drive in a blizzard to get the NAE™ to Toronto for storage and await the setup for that show. The 1997 Canadian International Autoshow would be marvelous.

February 1997: Rick and I flew to Toronto to set up the display and attend the media events. Unfortunately, for the opening of the show, we were asked to fire up the NAE™ to open the show. the NAE wouldn't start! Guess we should have test fired the vehicle back in November. Rick flew home, John Kung, Keith Zanghi and I spent the next ten days attending the show. The show was great, the people were wonderful and we had a great deal of exposure including a very good spot on the Discovery Channel.

June 1997: I managed to secure a runway for testing the NAE™ right in our back yard, the Toledo, Wa. airport. Dave Haller joined our crew of volunteers and lead us to Don Small and Sons, UNOCAL Dealer. They began providing free Jet fuel for us. We must thank them for all that support. Up to that point, we were buying it from Spanaway Airport. We had revenue from the autoshows that now allowed us to fix and modify some things on the NAE and repair a few things on the truck and trailer as well. Now we could make some real test runs. We made several runs close to 300 mph. Les Shockley, an old friend and hero of Rick Kikes had taken over the drivers chores. NW Cable News came out to film our story. Unfortunately, Rick and Les were not to excited about their presence so they didn't get much to show other than a group of frustrated crew members standing in the rain.

August 1997: We couldn't quite get an agreement between the Abbotsford airshow and Rick, so I secured a spot at the Seattle Seafair Hydroplane Races. The NAE™ crew, minus Rick, were treated like true guests by the UNOCAL Distributors Assn. as well as the PICO American Hydroplane Team, Fred Lehland and Steve Lampson. Later, my wife and I were invited to the PICO Teams Luau held at the Lampsons home on Mercer Island. We managed to secure a couple of radio and TV interviews.

October 1997: We, the crew of the North American Eagle™, Keith Zanghi, Ron Norman, Heather Eckstein, John Kung, Jon Higley, Dave Haller, Steve Green, Cameron Shadle and others not mentioned here, finally were about to accomplish what we had set out to do. We finally got the NAE™ onto the Shuttle Runway at Edwards AFB. First, we had to spend a day with the film crew of the Tonight Show and Jay Leno. Yes, we took Jay Leno for a ride in the back seat of the NAE™. It aired on the Tonight Show on October 30. That was the same night our filmed runs and interview aired on a local program called Evening Magazine.

October 12, 1997: The US Air Force at Edwards AFB escorted the NAE™ onto the 5.5 mile long Shuttle Runway for our first test run. Flight operations were suspended for that area of the base. The skies were bright blue and not a breeze blowing. The surface had been defodded and smoothed by the Air Force. Airmen spent many hours preparing the surface for us. We stationed our crew members along the course at mile markers. Rick started the NAE™ and we waited for the dust trail to be spread over the miles of groomed runway surface. Rick ran the jet on compressor to 3/4 of a mile, reaching a speed of 150 mph and pulled the parachutes to slowly come to a stop at the 2 mile mark. After Rick emerged from the vehicle, his comments were "what a wonderful surface" and "much smoother than I expected". We towed the NAE™ back to the starting point. Rick noticed his watch and decided he had better get into the motorhome with Les and head for Burbank to catch his flight back to Portland. Ron Norman, Steve Green, some friends and I spent the rest of the day installing the new high speed wheels on the NAE™ the Steve and his Eagle Machine shop had build and profiled for the vehicle. We would drive straight through to Tacoma (non-stop like the trip to Edwards) in order to get back to work.

October 17, 1997: Ron Norman, John Kung and I traveled to Edwards AFB for the 50th Anniversary of the USAF and Breaking of the Sound Barrier. It was a wonderful show with an estimated 1 million spectators. Unfortunately, the Air Force public affairs office remembered the day we canceled our appearance the previous year. They canceled our appearance for this year, even though we had the NAE™ sitting in the parking lot at operations within walking distance of the show. I guess we deserved it!

The Thrust SSC had set the record at 763.035 mph and broken the sound barrier on land. Where does that leave us? Rick and Les have decided to go it alone with the American Eagle One, and do airshows. I've got my Lakester to get ready for an attempt at beating the 204 mph flathead record and two wrecked airplanes to build into one. Ron Norman will continue building engines for superstock racers and John Kung is hard at work at the Frank Russell Company. Dave Haller's sheriff work will still be interrupted by his C Altered he has ready for Bonneville next year and Jon Higley is working on some educational material for Keith Zanghi's web site named LANDSPEED.COM. Bob and Dick Pearson will continue to promote land speed racing and we don't know if we will ever see our $5000. investment again.

Keith Jon and I will continue with the dream. We will continue with the name North American Eagle™ since we own the rights to the name. The website has always been owned by Keith. He retains copyrights to all the photos. We will keep the Landspeed.com operational but use it to advertise for other racing teams as well, and our sponsors. We had a great deal of fun, had some excitement and met a nation of interesting and interested people. Maybe the $5000. was just a fee for the great education I received.

Edward J. Shadle, Project Manager.

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