On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:44:03 GMT, "Vaughn Simon"
wrote:

... of course a plane
just out of the pits will be a lot slower and have less acceleration than
those already aloft (due to still carrying a heavy fuel load).

Reduced acceleration yes, but a heavier aircraft has a faster best L/D, (all
else being equal) which is why competition gliders often fly with water ballast.


If you take the time to think about it, the optimum Fuel Consumption vs Gross
Weight vs Altitude vs Speed vs Flight Duration vs Range strategy for these birds
gets more and more complicated.

You're right, of course. As an engineer, it's a problem that really tickles my
fancy.

However, we're right back to considering how interesting the races will be
(e.g., how willing they are to pay for another) to the average spectator. A
spectator at a NASCAR race or at Reno can easily judge how their favorite racer
is doing...e.g., if he's passing a lot of other vehicles, he's probably a
front-runner.

Not the case with the RRL. For one thing, the planes stagger their
takeoffs...they don't start at the same time. So unless the course length
differs for each aircraft (which is a really, REALLY thorny problem in fuel
planning), the order they cross the "finish line" has nothing to do with their
standings.

Plus, EVERY plane will be getting passed by the other planes in the first half
of their flight, and passing more and more of the other planes as their tanks go
dry and their acceleration increases (a RRL plane has about a 0.75G capability
at takeoff, but is able to accelerate at 1.5Gs just prior to running out of
fuel).

I'm sure the NASCAR and Reno events are complicated enough that to truly
understand how each competitor is doing, the spectator must consult the
scoreboard. But if a guy is a Rare Bear fan, he can probably tell pretty well
how the plane is doing just by watching it.

Not so in the RRL. It doesn't mean a thing if their favorite is passing other
racers; it just means the aircraft has burned more fuel. It doesn't mean a
thing if a racer crosses the finish line in front of others; it may have taken
off minutes before they did. So the spectator's eyes gravitate towards the
video monitors. By the end of the day, he'll probably come to the conclusion
that he could have followed the race better from his computer at home.

The discussion on this thread started when Harry asked if the racers were just
racing against the clock. I corrected him... but the more I think about it, the
more I think he had it right. The rockets are aloft at the same time, but each
is racing against an individual clock.

Ron Wanttaja