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"Rocket Men: The Wilde Blue Yonder is Wilder Than Ever"
"We're talking high altitude, high-velocity joyride planes," says Jeff Greason, president of Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace, designers of liquid rocket engines and visionaries behind the X-1 replica and other aircraft that in time could be had for the manufacturing. "We're talking space tourism. We're talking a high-speed, long-distance business jet that will cross the Pacific in 30 to 40 minutes." We're talking wow.
On the contrary, says Greason, "rocket aircraft have a tremendous amount of potential." Among the perks of personal spacecraft ownership? "Fun!" enthuses Greason. "Can you imagine the possibilities of flying such a craft?" We're talking now! For $5 million they will dedicate their team, today, to building your very own rocket. Imagine what you will do with one. Got 5 big ones? Give them a call. The company is XCOR Aerospace and you can reach them at 661-824-4714. www.xcor-aerospace.com. |
Glamorous Glennis, meet your replica. While you've been enjoying a langorous retirement on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., an enterprising band of rocket engineers has been designing an X-1 as exciting and fun to fly as Chuck Yeager found you. What's more, their rocket powered NeX-1, so named to distinguish it from you, an historic and irreplaceable treasure, is merely the first plan envisioned in their quest to bring rocket technology into the cockpits of everyday aviators. The way they see it, there's no reason any flyer can't cruise at a 350,000-foot altutude at a speed of mach 4, or for that matter, pilot his baby at mach 7, faster than the fastest of the fast, the X-15.
Greason and his fellow liquid-fuel rocketheads at XCOR have bet their careers on the belief that rocket-powered engines and, ultimately, aircraft customized to a client's requirements will make outer space a day-trip. There are those among avaiation enthusiasts, wagers Greason, "for whom owning their own spacecraft would be fun." Until then, Glamorous Glennis's understudy, the NeX-1, is front and center on XCOR's stage, the replica redy to go on the instant her supporting patron appears. And in addition to trotting out the NeX-1 at air shows around the country in the matter of other historical replicas - Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, for example, which enjoyed a successful world tour - XCOR visionaries plan to mount a "rocket engine road show" which will feature cutaway models of the X-1 and her replica, all in an effort to change public perception that rockets are expensive, unreliable and dangerous.