Q&A: Rocket Racing League - December 2005  

Source: RRL

When will the Rocket Racing League start and what is its format?

“In October 2005 we completed the performance flight test campaign of our development vehicle at the X PRIZE Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We will be running our first production-level Mark-1 X-Racer at the X PRIZE Cup 2006, taking place in Las Cruces, NM toward the end of October. Beginning in early 2007, we will bring fleets of production-level Mark-1 X-Racers to various race circuits across North America and eventually worldwide. The race track is currently configured as a box 2 miles long 1 mile high and half a mile wide (going away from the crowd as a depth dimension) in the form of a Grand Prix Race course tilted vertical. The course will expand depending on the venue in height, depth and length. Other races may include those similar in nature to the 24 hour Le Mans race which is timed, or the Le Tour de France which has 17 stages as we plan to have staged races as well, point to point, city to city, country to country. A typical race from the beginning…if you can envision what a Grand Prix track looks like with long straight-aways, turns, tight chicanes and deep banks, just draw a picture of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix and turn it up in the air….that’s our track. In addition, our races will be run with side by side starts, with timed qualifying rounds, timed races comparable to Le Mans and “point to point” races such as Le Tour de France. We will host a variety of race types as we grow and each race will have points awarded to its top finishers and qualifier.”

Source: RRL

“There will be a nominal entrance fee for each rocket plane that is entered into each event. Each race venue will provide a variety of facilities and infrastructure for the race weekend. There will be a nominal charge for a hangar. Each race venue will provide a variety of refueling capabilities for a nominal fee. Additionally there will be maintenance costs associated with the X-Racers which will be the responsibility of individual team owners, the costs range of which are being bound and will be delivered to prospective team owners in a RRL Mark-1 X-Racer Team Owner package, available from the RRL in Q12006.”

Has the RRL attracted any sponsorship yet?

“We will look for a major sponsors for the RRL similar to the Nextel Cup, we will consider it if it is the right fit for the League. Furthermore, we will have multiple race awards similar to the Indy 500: fastest lap, fastest pit stop, who is leading half way, pilot who lead the most laps, overall series champ etc, including a point system 1st -5th place. We are now actively looking and in discussions with consumer products companies. Look at any of the major racing sports and we'll be looking at the same type of sponsorships. Sponsors can contact us at (212) 907-6518.”

Source: RRL

“Revenues are planned to be generated through six primary sources, each falling under a separate revenue unit of the RRL: [1] sponsorship, [2] sanctioning fees (and venue related revenues), [3] merchandising/licensing, [4] broadcast rights, [5] gaming and [6] touring/amusement park offerings. Revenues are also planned to be generated through the licensing of intellectual property that the RRL generates as it executes on it ongoing patent strategy.”

How will fans follow the races? On TV or on the web?

“This is one the unique aspects of our league. We are lucky enough to have SimiGon, Mumbo Jumbo, PixelPlay and others involved who are the top gaming and interactive TV designers in the world. We are going to have a three-dimensional track on the screen where people can actually see the rocket planes racing on the tracks, special effects for rocket planes that go through a barrier and/or they are penalised, viewers can interact with pilots live while they are racing and have full ability visually in a way unlike anything that’s been done before. Viewers can expect to see the greatest show of their life. They will have interactivity not only in the pits with aircraft crews and teams, but they will see, feel and hear the sights and sounds never experienced by fans before Jumbotrons will also be on hand as well as GPS tracking and hand held GPS devices with WiFi connectivity and streaming video of the cockpit, live on track ‘side by side’ racing, off - wing shots and more.”

What will be the typical profile of the pilots (ie former arline pilots/military/private pilots)?

“Pilots are likely to include astronauts, acrobatic pilots, former military pilots, private pilots, commercial pilots. Some will possess experienced in the automobile racing, other will be active or former air show race participants. Every pilot we have spoken to has enthusiastically reached out to us to join our core group of founding pilots. Right now a few examples include Col. Rick Searfoss, Sean Tucker, Erik Lindbergh and Jim Campbell, to name a few. We are also talking to current and previous Auto Racing championship drivers and will be announcing a competition for additional pilots in the near future. We don’t have exact qualifications fully determined yet but the Rocket Racing League will assess its qualifications of the plane and the pilots on a yearly basis. The pilot will be required to have certain accreditation in addition to a pilot’s license and we will be delivering those at a later time as directed by the RRL rules body. The Rocket Racking League has its governing body that institutes all the specifications for height, weight, qualification for the pilots, everything that happens within that venue we will governed by RRL, similar to the successful models of Formula One, Indy and NASCAR.”

How has the concept of the RRL been received so far?

“We have been talked about up and embraced worldwide. A variety of independent fan clubs have already evolved. The flow of inquiries from prospective sponsors, pilots, team owners, venue providers, game developers, city and state agencies have far exceeded our expectations.”

What are your plans in growing the property? Do you have global ambitions or is your priority appealing to US fans for the moment?

“We plan to launch in the US but will move quickly to international territories. Our goal is to build a mobile infrastructure so that it can easily be moved from one remote location to another. We will target worldwide geographies of interest. We will also exist within the existing framework of established events such as air shows, providing an entirely new form of airborne entertainment.”

How important is technology to the RRL?

“The RRL is primarily a rocket-powered airplane and spaceship racing league that combines speed, technology, heroes and competition. The RRL is also a technology accelerator in the areas of airframe, propulsion and spacecraft design. Technology is key. Safety, content delivery and core airframe, propulsion and avionics technologies all draw from state of the art technologies. Better technology will produce cheaper mass market products as it did for the auto industry. To race we need flight vehicles that are reliable, safe and exciting. In accomplishing that goal we are drawing from the talents of the best in propulsion, airframe design and avionics, to name a few. The construction and manufacture of our vehicle will be a combination of off-the-shelf technologies and new invention. Where new invention is concerned, the Rocket Racing League will accelerate technological progress in these areas. As there exists in the race car industry, innovation will trickle down to the rest of the world, in our case stimulating rapid world advances in safe, low-cost, reliable transportation to and from space and around the globe.”

What do you think will appeal to fans about this new sport?

“The Rocket Racing League is all about the thrill and excitement of what has never been done before. Rocket planes are new. They inspire awe in spectators young and old. The visual, the audible, the feeling of a rocket plane lighting up its engine then competing on a vertical track in the sky is unlike anything every experienced before. The RRL plans to take the audience to a new level of interaction, far exceeding the tradition concepts of ‘touch’. We will allow interaction with the pilot at a level that has never been done before. We will enable spectator participation in actual races where spectators will take the controls of virtual X-Racers that are superimposed on a live video feed of an actual race, and compete! We will have peer-to-peer gaming where users from all over the world can remotely compete against each other over the internet. We will educate about space and create a family experience that infuses a new energy into the concept of airborne racing. And that’s just today. Tomorrow we will reach further into the skies, with more innovative designs, at speeds far exceeding those achieved by any stretch of the imagination with conventional races today.”

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