Editor's notes: The following comes from Jon Higley, Webmaster for the North American Eagle LSR team.  The newsletter is scheduled to come out on Wednesday's, but if there isn't much in the way of news, we may skip a week, or if there is a great deal of news then I will add another issue or two.  I like to keep the newsletters to a reasonable size so that you can read them quickly and then store them if you wish.  The websites listed above have generously offered to be our websites and repositories for photographs as well as texts.  Send photos that you have on the history of landspeed racing to the websites as I have not learned how to send them from my system yet.
1) October 19, 2007.  Ladies and Gentlemen: Wow! What a week. Team North American Eagle completed

  a very successful appearance at the Black Rock Desert.  After finishing our 7th test session, the first thing

  we have to do is acknowledge the achievements of the past competitors at Black Rock. Richard Noble in

  '83, Breedlove in '96 and '97 and ThrustSSC Team in '97. In the 2 hr BBC Documentary The Mission, the

  cameras follow the efforts of ThrustSSC record setting performance at Black Rock. Although the show

  documented what the team went through to get there, you can't really fully appreciate the effort until you

  have lived it. Traveling to Black Rock this year was a learning experience for the entire team. Those who

  have been here before praised Team North American Eagle™ on our efforts. Those included former team

  members of ThrustSSC who were on hand to celebrate the 10 year anniversary and world record holders

  Rosco McGlashan (Aussie Invader), John Ackroyd (Thrust II) and land speed racing legend Craig

  Breedlove.  Our main goal was to set up camp in Black Rock and come away with the experience we will

  need next year. Since El Mirage of last year the crew has made several changes to the Eagle and this

  would be the first time the changes would be tested. To make a test session with the North American

  Eagle™ takes a lot of effort. With over a hundred tons of equipment and a caravan of support vehicles it

  takes a lot of resources. In no particular order we would like to tell you about some of those. Our debut

  at the Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada was the first time the Eagle was on our all metal wheels.

  With most of the design done by Eagle Machine, Inc in Abbotsford BC, John Mittlelieder verified the

  data using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). When FEA showed potential problems, John would tweak the

  design until satisfactory results were achieved. Through maybe a dozen iterations, the final design was

  completed and work began at two machine shops located 1,200 miles apart. Mark Moore, owner of

  UREMET Corporation builds over 85% of the roller coaster wheels in the world. If you have ever ridden

  a roller coaster, chances are you have ridden on UREMET Wheels. Machining of the rear wheels would

  be one of the fastest rides yet for UREMET Corporation to date! Mark and his team of machinists spent

  hundreds of hours coordinating with the suppliers to get the wheels ready to machine. His team went to

  extraordinary efforts to get them shipped to Spanaway for final machining. Mark Moore and Dorn

  Machum were on hand every day during our test session as they flew back from Winnemucca in Dorn's

  RV 6.  Steve Green and his employees at Eagle Machine, Inc spent over 200 hours finishing the rear

  wheels and doing the complete machining of the front and rear wheels. The whole process was captured

  by the cameras from the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) who are making the Eagle part of their

  new Science Series, Project X. To ensure the proper installation of the bearings, Steve brought along his

  brother Dave and one of their crew members on their record setting Chevy Vega, Calvin Dirks. The team

  would also like to thank Klüeber Lubrication for providing the finest grease available for high speed

  bearings. Visitors to the North American Eagle™ complex at Trego Springs on the Black Rock will never

  know the amount of effort that went into the development of these very special wheels. The project now

  has wheels that are safe to 900 MPH.  The CBC crew was fantastic! Larry Lynn, Dan Lynn, Jef Henschel,

  Mitch Gabowrie and Brian Fleck had the cameras wrapped in plastic to fight off the Black Rock Desert

  fine dust that gets into everything. Long time sponsor and Academy Award and Emmy Winner Dan Wolfe

  was on hand to provide aerial footage with his Cessna Skymaster. Wolfe Air Limited and Gyron Systems

  International have the finest aerial HD Camera System made. Everyone reading this has seen a movie

  made by these two companies. They lead the world in aerial movie and video production. Also on hand

  to help out Dan was Dave Stevenson. Last June Ed got a ride in Dave's Boeing PT-17 Stearman Kadet.
  Molly Bakewell from PCB Piezotronics was on hand to provide assistance where needed. PCB supplies

  the Data Acquisition System used on the Eagle. In this session, newly installed air pressure sensors were

  installed to gather data for our upcoming Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies. PCB has spent

  the previous four years helping the team get to this point. Falcon® Electric, Inc was riding on the car

  for the first time. Their Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) provide back up power for all the PCB

  Equipment. Besides the data acquisitions on the car, numerous video cameras were also riding along.

  Motocam360 cameras were in the cockpit. We first met Tim Ennis from Motocam at Bonneville a few

  years ago when we installed his cameras on Ed’s 828 Lakester. The video was later used on a National

  Geographic Show. Olympus Industrial supplied their iSPEED HG high speed video camera that we

  used to capture the parachute opening event. With capabilities of 33,000 frames per second (fps), the

  camera provides an accurate analysis of the parachute opening. Traveling for the first time was Rocket

  Cam Cameras from Ecliptic Enterprises of Pasadena CA. Built to handle 100g, the small cameras are

  used on the Space Shuttle and Delta family of rockets. Another customer was Space Ship One that used

  Ecliptic Enterprises cameras during it’s record setting flight. Steve LaBrecque from Ecliptic braved the

  dust storms and was with us the entire week. Thanks Steve for all your help!  Also helping Team North

  American Eagle™ this week was Cover-All Building Systems out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who

  provided our 32 by 65 foot enclosure. It is hard to imagine how the team could have survived the severe

  weather conditions encountered this week with out the aid of the shelter. The structure was easy to install,

  and Team North American Eagle™ assembled the huge structure in about half a day. The support from

  Cover-All is welcome by all. It not only protected us from the severe dust storms, but provides protection

  from the glaring Black Rock Desert sun. Long time fuel sponsor Small & Sons Oil Distribution supplied

  the hundreds of gallons of Jet A for the car. Imperium Renewables provided support with BioFuels as

  Team North American Eagle™ continues to research the use of alternative fuels in gas turbines.  Of

  course we couldn't have gotten to Black Rock with out the help of long time Bonneville Racer Don

  Lemons and his company Interstate Wood Products. Located in Longview WA, Don lent us his tractor to

  haul our support trailer. Tom Pengelley handled the driving chores, while John Drury drove the LevX®

  tractor towing the Eagle Transporter. Long time supporter of the project, The B&I Marketplace provided

  funding to help us get to Black Rock. We are pleased to announce that South Puget Sound residents will

  be able to view the Eagle in person in the next few weeks. We will have the car on display once again at

  the B&I Marketplace. Look for announcements in a future update.  Trip Report
     10/13/07
  After driving all day and into the night, the North American Eagle™ vehicles arrived at Gerlach, Nevada

  about midnight. At first light on Saturday morning the entire entourage migrated onto the Black Rock

  Desert. We set up our base camp 12 miles onto the huge lakebed. The entire day was dedicated to setting

  up our huge Coverall shelter and unloading the Eagle.
    10/14/07
  Sunday was spent installing the new high speed wheel assemblies, high speed parachute systems and

  various other tasks. Both days provided sunny and calm weather conditions.
    10/15/07
  On Monday the weather began to change with threatening clouds and wind. In spite of that we continued

  with preparations to conduct test runs. The conditions worsened and we decided to hold off on the test

  runs because visibility became poor with the blowing dust.
    10/16/07
  Tuesday was not much better but the team decided that we needed to get ourselves positioned in case we

  could get a window of calm conditions. In the early afternoon it seemed like we could conduct a test run

  we fired up the Eagle and made a test run. The track conditions were very rough and Ed was bounced

  around inside the cockpit quite severely and at the three mile marker drove into a dust cloud with zero

  visibility. As he slowed he finally came out of the dust cloud in one piece and still on the track. Tuesday

  afternoon we decided to conduct another run. The same conditions prevailed with more dust and zero

  visibility during the test run. In spite of the terrible conditions, the items we needed to test such as steering,

  suspension and other technical items were done so very successfully. We cannot even guess at the speeds

  we ran because Ed was too busy to even glance at the airspeed indicator! Even the camera aimed at the

  instrument panel came loose from its mount so we lost video. All the work provided by Nick and his crew

  at Hydraulic Repair & Design (HRD) paid off with excellent performance from our hydraulic system.

  Although our hydraulics expert on the team, Scott Robertson, couldn’t make it to Black Rock, all the

  work he did certainly paid off. Other hydraulic help came from Dave Gregory who worked on the

  suspension system.
    10/17/07
  Wednesday, the conditions were terrible with 60 MPH winds and dirt blowing into every tool box, storage

  bin and transportation trailers. We broke camp, went into town for a show and dinner and headed back

  to Tacoma the next morning. I guess you can say that the Black Rock Desert is one of those places that

  you can hardly wait to get there and once you are there, you can hardly wait to leave!  Special thanks to

  Thor and Lisa Holder of Signs By Tomorrow in the Houston South store. They spent many a late night

  preparing all the sponsor decals that appeared on the car. Power all weekend was provided by a brand

  spanking new generator provided by Central Welding Supply. Covich-h-Williams Company made the

  Bureau of Land Management happy. With an ample supply of Sorbents, team members were able to keep

  every drop of jet fuel and oil off of the desert playa. We also got to thank the good folks at Powder

  Coatings, Inc who did so much work this past couple months providing bullet proof coatings on our

  support trucks.  The team that traveled to Black Rock was one of our largest yet. In no particular order

  Steve & Libby Wallace, Von Armstrong, Sean Rondestvedt, Bernard McVay and his friend Ray Noele,

  Molly Bakewell and her friend Mike, John Drury, Dave Selby, Tim Finley, Tom and Rich Pengelley, Gino

  Sanfilippo. John Winchester, Mike Thoe, Rex Walter, Jon Higley, Doug Schwartz, Cam, Rachel and Alex

  Shadle, Dave Green, Steve Green, Calvin Dirks, Eric Helpenstell and his co-workers Dave Bukovnik and

  Katie Garijo-Rickard, Mark Sequin, Ed and Elaine Shadle and Keith Zanghi. Team North American

  Eagle™ would like to thank the wonderful staff at Bruno's and the Miner Club for being so gracious.

  We would also like to thank the members of the ThrustSSC Team who were on hand and were genuinely

  supportive of our efforts.  Jon M. Higley, C.I.O./E.A.D., Crew Lead/Webmaster, North American Eagle,

  Inc.  http://www.landspeed.com