Ed, I was sorry to learn about the postponement of further runs at Alvord due to
bad lakebed conditions. Best of luck to you and the NAE team.
Having said that, I was wondering . . .
If lots of money and (therefore,) people were available, would there be anything
that could be "artificially" done to improve the lakebed and make it suitable for
high-speed runs?
For example: watering, rolling (with a pavement roller, formerly commonly called a
"steamroller"), dragging? Perhaps enormous amounts of all of these things??
The reason I ask is that I have a growing fear that somebody from England or
Australia may bump the land speed record beyond 800 mph soon. I don't know
what the "ultimate" design capability of the NAE is. After all those years of hard
work, etc., maybe some kind of fundraising campaign (based on this fear) would
be appropriate, perhaps tapping into the patriotic feelings many people in North
America have. Personally, I hope you break the record and get into the record
books. After that, it doesn't much matter to me if Bloodhound or the Aussie
Invader break your record. Even if your record had been recently established.
I invite comments on all this. And with Ed & Keith's approval, I would be happy
to help with such a fundraising campaign. I don't have much money, but I do
have some available time and a creative mind.
Tallguy (in northern California)
retired mechanical engineer