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Robert HaririBill KochBob Weiss |num_employees = 15 |industry = Air racingSportsEntertainment Aerospace engineering |products = Rocketplane design, race promotions |homepage = (www.rocketracingleague.com ) }} The Rocket Racing League was a racing league that planned to use rocket-powered aircraft to race a closed-circuit air racetrack. Founded in 2005, the league made its first public flights in 2008 and is working to begin regular racing seasons. The "rocket racers" are slated to compete in the air and on a virtual racetrack easily viewed by a live audience as well as projected on large screen and handheld electronic displays. Four prototype canard-style ''Rocket Racer'' aircraft have been built since 2001. The league had planned to hold its inaugural race season in 2008 with four races, but encountered financial difficulties that delayed fielding of ''Rocket Racers'' by the six teams that had been previously announced. With the addition of venture capital funding in mid-2009, technology development continued and one exhibition occurred in 2010, with another round of plans for an inaugural season of races in 2011. The 2011 races were, in the end, never scheduled. ==Background== Projected to be an hour and one half in length, the races would be between Rocket Racer planes that use liquid oxygen and either kerosene or ethanol fuel〔(Rocket Racer fact sheet from League website ) 〕 with a burn time of four minutes. The rocketplanes are expected to cost less than US$1 million each. The planes are based on the a fixed-gear Velocity SE modified by XCOR Aerospace and the retractible gear Velocity XL modified by Armadillo Aerospace for the purpose of rocket racing. The Velocity airframe is derived from a commercially available kit plane that traces its design heritage to the Rutan Long-EZ, which has been modified to accept rocket power and custom avionics. In order to provide the airframes, RRL purchased the aircraft's manufacturer, Velocity Aircraft, in April 2008.〔(RRL press release announcing acquisition of Velocity. ) 〕 The RRL has been called "NASCAR with rockets", The Rocket Racer flew for a public audience at the 2008 EAA AirVenture Airshow at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. If league competition begins, Whitelaw indicated tournament semifinals would be held each September in Nevada, with finals each October in New Mexico at the X Prize Cup competing for a $2 million championship purse. Races would take place on a race course two miles (3 km) long, one mile (1.6 km) wide, and in the air. A typical race would take about one hour, and fans would be able to see multiple camera views, including cockpit, "on-track," "side-by-side" and wing-angle views. Additionally, a computer game is planned which will interface with racer position data in real time over the internet, allowing players to virtually compete with the rocket pilots. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rocket Racing League」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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