Finally ! Some progress out of Rocket Racing League

Is it just me, or does it seem that the Rocket Racing League is really out of touch with doing any serious public relations work. It's nearly impossible to get regular information out of them and they seem to think that it makes sense to keep everyone in the dark about their operation. You'd think that with the background of some of the major players, you would see a public relations campaign much like NASCAR runs.

At any rate, has anyone seen the latest article out on them test flying the Armadillo Aerospace engine? I copy the link below for your reference. There is an interesting nugget about an apparent contract to produce 5 more such engines. That might explain some of the recent profitability of AA. However, the article is devoid of any hard detail on performance and or whether or not it met expectations.

Rocket Racing League(R) Conducts Successful Inaugural Test Flights of Armadillo Aerospace Powered Rocket Racer
New Entertainment Sports League to Fly with New Rocket Engine Provider

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/r ... &dist=hppr

I just read over the article that Matthew Ross linked in his post.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/ ... 95499.aspx

I notice a couple of things. First, this article sounds like RRL is kicking XCOR to the curb in favor of the AA engine. Ouch! That's got to sting. Am I reading that wrong? Secondly, did anyone notice the snide little comment by the author, Alan Boyle, identifying John Carmack as "the millionaire." Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like there's got to be more than one millionaire among the founders of the RRL.

Anyone care to tell me what the hidden message must be in singling out Carmack as "the millionaire."

I wouldn't read too much into it. It's well-known that John funded most of Armadillo's activities up until these current contracts with his own money, money gained from id Software's highly successful computer games. I see it as sort of a short-hand way of suggesting where Armadillo came from. And Alan Boyle's a good guy; I don't see any reason he'd phrase it that way to be snide.

Well, I'll certainly take your word for it.

Perhaps as a fan, I have ascribed a far loftier attitude to Carmack than that of bored rich boy. His writing, interviews, stated goals and most of all progress, spell out a determined advocate. One whose business acumen give him the money to place where his mouth and heart are.

I applaud all of you. Thanks for posting so much. Armadillo Aerospace is a reality show, par excellence.

WoW! That was worth the wait! That video he links is awesome. And did you see the comment below where it is stated that the plane did 0-100mph in 4.5 seconds? Good lord! That works out to about 1G! I wonder if that was full throttle?

And yes, the article quotes RRL CEO Whitlaw as saying that Armadillo has a contract for five engines, but they need XCOR to fix something (or a few things) b4 they are back in. Very interesting, and awesome that Armadillo has paying customers for a propulsion system! Wait to go!

Fully loaded, it doesn't go 0-100 in 4.5 seconds. If we only put in a couple hundred pounds of propellant it would...

John Carmack

So, would the acceleration be that strong on the last couple hundred pounds of propellant? I understand the ullage is high, but how far down does the thrust to weight ratio drop?

Haha! Well, it still has alot more giddy-up-'n-go than the rocket crane truck! I'm definitely impressed.

Almost certainly John means, low propellant load with extra ullage gas. So the last hundred pounds of propellant from an ordinary fuel load probably won't give as much acceleration as that.

So, this would have to involve some complicated pressure regulation system with yet another gas tank to provide the variable ullage?

If/when RRL gets the lead out, I wonder if one of those hotshot teams will decide to try something like that for the extra little advantage.

Update on the test flights:
http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=6529

That video is mean. I didn't actually think the RRL would get anywhere, but the airframe selection added to the seeded exhaust is awesome.