X-Prize Cup Exhibition, Rocket Racing League Hinted

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. – The Holloman Air and Space Exposition was held Friday in Alamogordo.

People who attended got a first-hand look at the future of fighter jets. The newest line in stealth bomber planes hit the skies for the first time over Southern New Mexico. The event showcases high-tech advances in rocketry and space travel.

It’s the F-22 Raptor and it is an awesome sight. It’s a 60-foot jet that can hit mach-speeds of nearly 1200 miles per hour making it the most manueverable plane of all time. That’s according to Holloman officials. The Raptor is undetectable by enemy radar and piloted by only one man. Itsadvanced design makes it verycapable and very awesome.

“It has everything you can think of. It has thrust-vectory, that means it can pretty much turn on a dime. The first opportunity we got to see the F-22 in New Mexico. It’s unrivaled in the sky. It’s the newest, best, biggest fighter jet we have out there, and anything out there cannot touch this aircraft,” said Capt. Brian Comer of Holloman Air Force Base.

Couple the advancement in technology with the thrill of speed and perhaps not even the sky’s the limit. This is the future of rocket racing. Some maythink rockets and racing just sounds dangerous. But the founders of the Rocket Racing League say it will compete with any traditional American sport.

Think of it asNASCAR in the air. Pilots fly small jets on a racetrack that is coordinated through virtual boundaries projected in the sky. The jets would reach incredible speeds, racingover thousands of spectators below.

Exhibition races are set to start in 2008 with the league hoping to officially begin in 2010.

“When you see that superimposed racetrack in the sky, and you see the planes flying through it, and then you can go to your computer and fly along, we’ll you can’t do that in other sports. Football fields have grass,NASCAR has walls, boats have water, and those are physical limitations that we don’t have in the sky,” said Granger Whitelaw of the Rocket Racing League.

So far the league has six teams and is currently in talks withTV networks for a broadcasting deal.

— Written for broadcast by Doug Wernet

— Edited for the web by Miguel Martinez