Jet Sailplane Racing League

I think it is time for a Jet Sailplane Racing League. Here me out
and I promise this is not heresy and might even be a boom to the
sailplane community. The Rocket Racing League was planning a racing
league similar to the Red Bull races using a fiberglass Canard Long-EZ
type airframe at a Million Dollars a ship. Severe financial
difficulty due to lack of funding and only a few sponsors seems to be
dooming the venture. The Red Bull races have appeared to do better
financially actually having races flying the aerobatic style Edge 540
airframes and racing around a 3 mile Pylon courses. It still has
still not risen to a national level of awareness but proves air racing
has potential! Unfortunately I just read that the 2011 Red Bull races
have been canceled after only 6 years of racing.
Soaring has a big problem. We are shrinking in popularity and not
competing very well for new participants. Less pilot numbers means
fewer soaring sites, less glider development, and less tow
availability. Shrinking numbers does nothing good for the long term
health of our sport. The challenge for us is that we are not very
spectator friendly like most other sports. Even golf is blows us by,
a very silly sport I might add. Hit a little ball in a little hole.
WOW! I attended my first sailplane race last year in Logan, Utah
and had a great time. Even with the Google earth/Spot Tracking
projected on a large screen in the hanger, spectators miss most of the
action and thrill of the race. It was fun for me but my wife has no
interest at all. Even my wife as uninterested as possible in watching
sports can watch a little football or car racing and feel a little
entertained, but glider racing, NADA!
Just imagine 12 Turbine powered sailplanes racing around a small 3
mile air circuit, slow and low enough for spectators to watch and
enjoy and loud enough to scream FUN! I can't imagine how difficult it
is to move all the airplanes for the Red Bull races but the sailplanes
naturally travel quite easily as they are designed to. The perfect
airframe platform is highly debatable but I propose the DuckHawk by
Windward Performance. Yes, I know it has not flown yet but its all
carbon airframe makes it the only one we could paint different colors
with sponsor logos and designs. Yes, I want the blue Viagra ship!
The DuckHawk has a high 200 kts VNE and a +11.0 / -9.0 g’s structural
design which bods well for a racing ship. We then mount one of Bob
Carltons TBS-100 turbines on the top for a pure racing machine. The
Duckhawk also has a large water ballast capacity which would lend
itself well to holding enough Jet A fuel for the race. The race could
even have pit stops for more fuel just like NASCAR. Airframe mounted
cameras would broadcast live video back for an in flight feel just
like NASCAR. The ground crew on a pit stop would race to fill up the
Jet A, top off the wingtip smoke and and quickly wipe the bugs off the
windscreen. Yes I know bug wipers are not as glamorous as tire
changers, but work with me here, it has possibility
Imagine little boys watching sailplane looking jets race around a
closed circuit, smoke streams off the wingtips, feeling the roar of
the turbines as they passed by going 150 kts. The sailplane jets
would be highly maneuverable with only a 15 Meter wings being able to
weave in and out of pylons. I know that 150 kts is really not that
fast in airplane speeds but when you consider how small a 15 meter
sailplane is in the air, it will look like 300 kts. Yes, I know these
racing ships would really not be sailplanes for all tense and
purpose. Our fans would fall in love with the shape and the idea of
racing airplanes with skinny wings and then realize they too have the
opportunity to learn to fly and even race traditional sailplanes at a
price that is somewhat affordable.
The jet sailplanes would cost less than $250K a ship which is only
a quarter of what the Rocket Racing League was proposing with their
million dollar jet airplanes. They would be highly portable from race
site to race site. I'm sure that the TBS-100 would only use a
fraction of the fuel that the Long-EZ racers were going to use.
Engine changes could take only minutes. The glide ratio of a DuckHawk
at 50 to 1 would greatly enhance safety with an in flight engine
failure over a tradition aerobatic airplane and its 6 to 1 glide
ratio.
I know to many glider pilots this sounds like sailplane apostasy.
Yes, I am proposing a *******ization of our sport, but for good
cause. Yes, it is not soaring in a thermal or a wave, but it could
be a shinning beacon of light showing new young minds the excitement
and fun of flying a sailplane in a 10 knot thermal surrounded by half
a dozen other gliders all ready to do battle. Air racing in this
country was once a national sport. Back in the golden age of the
airplane, air races were all the national rage. Many little boys
dreamed of someday becoming pilots. I can assure you now, the youth
of today are not dreaming of becoming pilots. Flying has lost its
magic some how.
I know this is probably a wild fantasy, a little heresy, and some
craziness, but it is sure fun to procrastinate piles of work around me
to dream about flying. Thanks for reading my day dream of the day.
John Ackerson