Rocket Racers are go: two aircraft put on a show in Tulsa
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 28th 2010 12:34PM
posted April 28th 2010 12:34PM
This isn't the first time that would-be competitors in the Rocket Racing League have taken to the skies, but the recent Tusla Air & Rocket Racing Show did mark the first time that two of the aircraft have flown together, giving spectators a taste of what an actual rocket race might be like. Those actually looking up are only seeing part of what makes the Rocket Racing League so unique, however, as a key component of it is an augmented reality system that not only lets the pilots and viewers alike see the virtual course, but promises to eventually let folks at home test their skills against real pilots. What's more, all of this may not be all that far off -- Rocket Racing League founder Peter Diamandis (of X-Prize fame) is hoping to kick off the first series of races sometime next year. Until then, you'll have to make do with the video after the break.
BOSS!
@hdawggy
2:35, he missed
Meh. I'd prefer Pod racing myself.
@Spiny Norman. I wouldn't. For some reason you can only fly 2 feet above the ground, and the rockets are attached by cables. And grievous bodily harm is almost guaranteed
R.I.Ps Dud Bolt
@Lord Vader
Kind of like NASCAR, huh? I like.
Great, now Tim Tebow can fly back to loserville.
Awesome- I read a while back where this virtual reality navigation system was installed in commercial aircraft and it totally eliminated pilot error crashes.... Gotta try and find that link...
I saw one of these fly at EAA in Oshkosh a couple years ago. Sort of a neat plane to see. I'm disappointed it's taking this long to get any real competitions together, though.
Okay this si ridiculous... this is a good post... it shouldn't be over shadowed by the HTC Microsoft thing... It has 220+ posts in 5 min this has less than 10...
Thunderbirds are go! I loved those silly marionettes.
what happens when you try to pass someone? or is it all one plane at a time... yawn... I would rather watch predator drones battle in the sky
@eugeneaction
Predators against laser-wielding birds on steroids. Yeaaaaah!
John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace supplies the engines according to the vid. Wonder if id Software did the iphone app?
Next up, they make a real world rocket jumping setup...
If this were more like traditional air racing it'd be cool. As it is now it's too gimmicky.
@knAuz yaaa
I got to see this at the show and it was pretty badass. The Cessna flying through the rings was cool but a bit slow but the actual rocket racers were sweet. I was worried that they were going to fly one at a time but the second showing had them flying right behind each other. Sadly, one had a system error and had to land, which forced the other one to land as well. It's pretty creepy(?) to see the plume and hear the roar, then the thing shuts off and it goes speeding across the sky doing acrobatics while being completely silent. They also talked a lot about how they plan to tie in computer simulation games that let you race the rocket racers in real time from home. I'd be down for that.
"I run on beans . . . I run on laser beans."
Rockette Morton - 'Trout Mask Replica'
John Denver died when he flew a LongEZ w/o enough fuel.
@utilitus
Yeah, well these aren't Long E-Zs.
@utilitus They do look like Long EZs, but low fuel wasn't REALLY what killed John Denver.
Build issues with his particular plane along with inexperience on it and the non-standard location and difficulty in turning the switch were the major contributing factors. From what I've read, the plane itself is very safe (and w/ perfect soft stall characteristics).
The only inefficient thing about those canards are the pusher props, so these should be awesome, and the augmented reality is pretty sweet! :D
@Ducman69 & @Vdek
The FAA does study accidents to death. AFAIK the basic Rutan airframe design and the wide range of derivatives descend from a WWII Japanese idea that was never mass produced. Burts' the man, the flag-wavers who surrounded him during that round the world thing not withstanding. Bransons' also cheesy, double cream.
omg thats awesome!
they need to get virtual power ups, you know like augmented reality boxes that have real time power ups, certain boxes would allow the planes to go faster and slower
@sendgadget And bananas that lock the rudder and ailerons and make them spin out of control.
@sendgadget I was at the show and they had a demo looping on the Jumbotron and they showed an example where every plane had its own course and the first plane to a certain checkpoint would get some kind of point bonus or powerup. Not sure which though because the video didn't show it for too long and it was kind of hard to hear with all the planes and jets flying around.
Sweet! This is the beginning of Wipeout.
Tusla?
base plane design looks like a modified Long-EZ. and who designed that? Burt Rutan who made spaceshipone and two