space

The Rocket Racing League Plans New Mexico Headquarters

Filed under: Wings

More news on the growing space industry in New Mexico. Aero-News Network reports that New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has announced that the Rocket Racing League, the NASCAR of the sky, will have its world headquarters in New Mexico. The Rocket Racing League will be based in Las Cruces and will also have facilities at the Southwest Regional Spaceport. Races will be held around the country with the semi-finals at the Reno Air Show in Nevada and the finals in New Mexico in conjunction with the X PRIZE CUP competition. The X-Racer rockets race a three-dimensional track that is one-mile high, two miles long, and a half-mile across and will race three to four laps around the course between pit stops. Cameras will follow the race from balloons, chase planes and the cockpits of vehicles.

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Tags: new mexico, NewMexico, rocket racing league, space, spaceport

Jeff Bezos Has Super Secret Space Plans

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

I'd been sucked in by Richard Branson's dog-and-pony show regarding Virgin Galactic but meanwhile Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has been planning his own space lair for his aerospace company, Blue Origin. According to this AP story, Bezos recently bought a 165,000 acre ranch in West Texas that he plans to use for test launches and that will eventually be the home of his spaceport. There aren't a lot of details yet but Bezos is somewhat interested in space tourism but is aiming at building ships to orbit earth creating permanent space colonies. Blue Origin has designed a ship that will take off vertically and carry three passengers.

[via AV Web]

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Tags: amazon, blue origin, jeff bezos, JeffBezos, rocket ship, space, space tourism, spaceport

Luxist Crystal Ball: Wings 2006

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

It's been an exciting year for aviation and 2006 looks to be a break-out year. The aviation market seems to be moving in two opposite directions. First of all there are the megaplanes, led by the behemoth doubledecker Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777. These larger planes lead to the need for increased runway size. In fact several airports have had to lengthen runways in order to accommodate the A380. And while they are making the runways larger they are also making the airports more luxurious as well, adding additional features like better restaurants, spas, luxury shopping and lounges worthy of wiling away a few hours.

On the flip side are the little planes: the Eclipse, the Mustang, the Adam A700, and the Javelin are just some of the planes we have been tracking and which should end up taking to the skies in large numbers in 2006. Because many of these planes are geared for short distances we could see a rise in air taxi services and private ownership. There has already been an increase in private plane clubs. Fractional ownership, which we noticed was big last year, has increased even more and we have also seen the rise of fractional clubs for those who are interested in being pilots instead of passengers (a trend born out by celebrities likeAngelina Jolie taking to the skies). All this small jet activity has also led to the rise of more and more private airports, posh private hangars with amenities that resemble boutique hotels and even homes which are designed so that you can park your plane in the driveway.

What's in the future? As we've seen by the latest moves from Richard Branson and Virgin Galatic space flight is definitely on tap for the next few years. "Space tourism" is currently still pricey but it is expected that the prices will fall eventually. And with the creation of the Rocket Racing League, we may well have NASCAR in the skies. But what I am really excited about for next year is the VTOL, that is the Vertical Take Off and Landing vehicles. The most-talked about is the Moller Skycar which made the pages of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book this season but there are other vehicles such as the Bell/Augusta "impossicopter" and the Carter Copter that offer the advantages of a plane and a helicopter. And NASA is still offering that $250,000 prize for a flying car. Could this be the year of the flying car? Let me know your predictions for 2006 in the skies.

Tags: airplane, airport, eclipse, fractional ownership, nasa, private planes, sky car, space, trends, vtol, wings

Erik Lindbergh Sculpture

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

As might be suspected of anyone with the last name of Lindbergh, Erik Lindbergh is a Renaissance man. Aero-News Network has a piece on the man who is a pilot, philanthropist and artist. Lindbergh, who has flown a Columbia 350 across the Atlantic and is part of theRocket Racing League also works in wood and other materials to create limited edition sculptures. He creates many different pieces but particularly interesting are his rockets and planes. The Timecapsule Rocket, shown here is six feet tall and has a removable plug at the bottom to store artifacts or cremated remains. The rocket is a limited edition of 25 and sells for $9,850.

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Tags: lindbergh, rockets, sculpture, space

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