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Rocket Racing League Flights With Armadillo Engine

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the now-with-more-cowbell dept.

Toren Altair mentions that the Rocket Racing League has video and pictures available from their recent flight tests of new Armadillo Aerospace liquid oxygen-alcohol engines. "Founded in 2005 by two-time Indianapolis 500 winning team partner Granger Whitelaw and X PRIZE Chairman and CEO Peter H. Diamandis, MD, the Rocket Racing League (RRL) is a new entertainment sports league that combines the exhilaration of racing with the power of rocket engines. To be held at venues across the country, the Rocket Racing League will feature multiple races pitting up to 10 Rocket Racers going head to head in a 4-lap, multiple elimination heat format on a 5-mile 'Formula One'-like closed circuit raceway in the sky."

22 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck with that. by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 5, Funny

    Little things zooming around up in the sky. Sounds like a pain in the neck to me.

    --
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    1. Re:Good luck with that. by snowraver1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sounds like a big pile of awesome to me.

      Speed? - Check!
      Noise? - Check!
      Engineering? - Check!
      Potential for large explosions? - Check!

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  2. Oxygen Alcohol? by jebrew · · Score: 2, Funny

    Liquid Oxygen Alcohol? You could call it Sky...maybe make it catchy and throw in a spare 'y'

    Weekend's coming up, where can I get some?

  3. Re:Engrish? Do You Even Attempt It? by gardyloo · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's a perfectly cromulent English flutzpah!

  4. Cool but... by zerosomething · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Very cool but not sure it's quite as cool as the XCOR Rocket Powered Aeroplane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MQvUCrjtmw and http://www.xcor.com/

    --
    It all starts at 0
    1. Re:Cool but... by Karrde45 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's got more power than the XCOR engine, which is why RRL is switching to Armadillo as its primary engine manufacturer.

  5. What is wrong with Forumla One? by Anachragnome · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Already cars are at the outer most limits of traction and control.

    Is this simply a bid for more spectacularly "entertaining" wrecks?

    Air races do not seem to be subject to the same rate of catastrophic wrecks as Formula One racing (or NASCAR for that matter), but ROCKETS? It seems to me that the margin of error is lowly being minimized to the points that wrecks are almost a certainty.

    But, then again, who would go watch NASCAR if there wasn't wrecks? Even as a race fan, I find NASCAR as interesting as the commercials shown while watching it.

    1. Re:What is wrong with Forumla One? by Zerth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The difference between this and NASCAR is that, yah, occaisonally one of the wrecks will try to mount the fence or a wheel will land in the stands.

      But when a wreck happens in this, you'll have a rocket propelled plane falling from the sky. It might lawndart into the stands or it might "safely" crash off in a field.

      Or it might go corkscrewing off towards the nearest building and everyone will be all "9/11!!!eleventy!!!"

      I can't wait to see their insurance rates.

    2. Re:What is wrong with Forumla One? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 2, Funny

      Or it might go corkscrewing off towards the nearest building and everyone will be all "9/11!!!eleventy!!!"

      "9/"? Why would people be yelling "9/" for?

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:What is wrong with Forumla One? by mobby_6kl · · Score: 2, Informative

      > Or it might go corkscrewing off towards the nearest building and everyone will be all "9/11!!!eleventy!!!"

      Or they just might, you know, hold the races somewhere where there aren't any buildings to crash into.

    4. Re:What is wrong with Forumla One? by berboot · · Score: 2, Informative

      2008 is the last year they will have the grooved tires. Next year, they'll allow full slicks again, but the aero requirements will be much more stringent (I've heard some people say that the new cars will have half as much downforce). All of this is part of Bernie's plan to make F1 cheaper for the smaller teams to participate (see Super Aguri Honda's withdrawl from the series.)

  6. This is an Outrage! by frostilicus2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're burning alcohol!

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  7. John Carmack by pieisgood · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is he even human?

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  8. from Doom to Rockets... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Interesting trivia for the /. crowd: Armadillo Aerospace was founded by John Carmack, id Software programmer.

    1. Re:from Doom to Rockets... by wattrlz · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's a joke about rocket-whoring in here somewhere...

    2. Re:from Doom to Rockets... by MeepMeep · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Interesting trivia for the /. crowd: Armadillo Aerospace was founded by John Carmack, id Software programmer.

      This is Slashdot...anyone in this 'crowd' who didn't know that Armadillo Aerospace was founded by JC (peace be upon him) needs to turn in their geek cred card for incineration.

  9. On/Off propulsion by chaim79 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was up at the EAA Oshkosh fly-in, they had one of these rocket powered aircraft showing off for the crowd. The most impressive part of the entire thing was the sound.

    First off he was at a decent altitude, there was about a 3 to 5 second delay between the engine turning off and the sound stopping. Even with that kind of distance the sound was Very loud, only close-in jets were louder. The sound of the rocket igniting was a standard "FOOM" kind of sound, and the running engine sound was also normal, but the sound the thing made when they shut off the engine was the weirdest I'd ever heard. It sounded like someone took some sound effects software and crossed the rocket sound with that of a balloon (when you stretch the opening to make that really high pitched, air-escaping, sound, then shut off/stop the air).

    The sound of the engine shutting off caught your attention more then the sound of it turning on or the sound of it running.

    One last note, there was no throttle on that plane, the choices were full on or full off, nothing inbetween.

    If these rocket racing courses are set out with some low-speed areas where they have to shut the engine off in order to make the turns, I will definitely be paying to watch these races, if nothing else for the sound of these rockets shutting off.

    --
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    1. Re:On/Off propulsion by evanbd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The racer flying was the XCOR plane; Carmack had theirs on display, but not flying. I don't know the details, but Carmack's engine may have a throttle -- he's done work with throttled engines for the Lunar Lander Challenge, and this engine is a related design. I believe Carmack's plane is larger, with a larger engine (but similar overall performance) compared to the XCOR plane.

      I'm not up to date, but the course the RRL was talking about was basically a climbing straight past the stands, an acrobatic turn at the top, and then a power-off glide for the back stretch, before a sharp turn and relighting the engine.

      For the XCOR engine, you can't leave the engine running nonstop for the full tank's worth of propellant while staying below Vne and at low altitude (ie on the race course) -- it just has too much thrust. The plan is several laps (3-6 or so, again I don't know current numbers) with the engine running ~1/3 of each lap, and then a pit stop and another round.

      Suffice to say, it should be a good show.

      I interned at XCOR and worked a little on their plane, but not recently; what I've said above is my recollection of what was publically available at the time, and may be wrong or out of date.

      You should see that engine up close... It's loud through earmuffs (well, really you feel it in your chest as much as your ears), and it's bright enough to compete with the noon desert sun.

  10. Re:Confucious say by MRe_nl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rocket jump likely. Bring 100 Health, 100 Armor and "REGENERATION".

    Q: What does a alcohol-fueled Armadillo do when it explodes?
    A: Quad damage.

    Q: What do you say when an Armadillo-rocket kills seven?
    A: "Impressive".

    *ducks*

    --
    "Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
  11. Another advantage of alcohol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it's easy to color using various metal salts. Blue flames, purple flames, yellow flames -- I notice the video has a red flame. Probably added a dash of strontium chloride. Fair bet all the racers will have "signature" colors to help the audience track which is which.

  12. Where's the ... tag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So where's the "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag?

  13. Re:A lot of work to build rocket engines by BiggerBoat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just a nitpick but it's actually only been 8 years. And they only switched over to cryogen/biprop engines 4 years ago. While there certainly is carryover from the lessons learned from the hydrogen peroxide work before that, they are fairly different regimes.

    This doesn't negate your point that it is difficult and has taken a while to get here; I just wanted to clarify.