gotta love boys' toys!
Sleek jet shoots for land-speed record
Washington state team eyes milestone
Thursday, June 19, 2003 Posted: 11:51 AM EDT (1551 GMT)
The slender, custom-painted former Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was bought from a surplus aircraft dealer.
SPANAWAY, Washington (AP) -- A team of more than a dozen men have been spending their weekends on a 39,000-horsepower dream: to shatter the world land-speed record of 763 miles per hour with a former jet plane on wheels.
"The British have held the record for 20 years," said Ed Shadle, a retired IBM computer technician. "It's about time that a couple of boys from Pierce County bring it back to America."
Shadle, 61, is the co-owner and driver of the vehicle; the other owner is Keith Zanghi, 48, a Boeing plant manager. They've already invested $100,000 toward their dream, working out of a friend's hangar in west-central Washington.
Fasten than sound
Along with about a dozen teammates, they're hoping to reach the 800-mph milestone -- well beyond the speed of sound -- in the slender, custom-painted former Lockheed F-104 Starfighter that Shadle and Zanghi bought from a surplus aircraft dealer in Belfast, Maine for $25,000.
Their team, North American Eagle, plans to install a test engine this September and run low-speed tests at an old B-52 runway in Moses Lake two months later. The team hopes to make its bid for the land-speed record in the fall of 2004 at Black Rock Desert north of Reno, Nevada, or at Cold Lake in Alberta, Canada.
"If we're lucky," Drumheller said, "we'll be part of history."
Members of North American Eagle get together every Saturday or Sunday morning with tools, doughnuts and an ice-chest full of beer to work on the project. Team members include an ejection specialist who worked on NASA space missions, a jet engine mechanic, a computer technician, a former B-52 mechanic, an auto body specialist, a machinist and an engineer. All are volunteers.
Sponsors needed
The group says it still needs $500,000 to finish the vehicle and another $500,000 to hold the record-breaking session, which would require a camp for a 30-member crew for a month.
Some sponsors have provided parts and services. A shop at Fort St. John in British Columbia is working on the engine. Another shop, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, machined the solid aluminum wheels. A shop in Port Angeles is building a magnetic braking system.
On its Web site, the team asks for potential sponsors to provide everything from on-board computers to portable toilets and toilet paper.
Few groups around the world are pursuing the land-speed record. The British record-holder, Andy Green, recently retired his vehicle. The other American team in the running is a past record-holder, Spirit of America, based in Rio Vista, California.
