July 2012 - Newsletter
A big welcome to all our loyal sponsors, supporters, 1000 MPH Club Members and LSR fans... Let me update you all on some of the activities and milestones we have reached over the past month.
IT'S OFFICIAL WE ARE GOING... We have been invited to attend the Sydney Motor Show in October this year. Our long time friend and sponsor Russ Tyrie from the VACC has formerly invited the Aussie Invader Team to appear in Sydney with an attention grabbing display of our project. Unfortunately we will not have Aussie Invader 5R ready for this appearance so we will have to settle for second best using our Advanced Electrical full sized stand up image, our fully assembled rocket motor and several associated displays. We will also have a first class visual presentation of our car with some great animation and technical interaction on tap for those people who want to learn more about our project. Russ has been a real trooper with his many years of dedicated support, thank you.
Be part of the action
Sydney Motor Show boasts worldwide coverage, featuring 10 massive days of 12 hours per day. Visitor figures are in the hundreds of thousands and the public opening will be preceded on Thursday 18th October by a Media and Industry Preview which is attended by approximately 450 media representatives drawn from motor writers, web journalists, business journalists ,TV news and feature reporters etc.
If you would like to get your company or products in front of this audience and associate your company with us as a sponsor or partner, please speak to Alex Blain on +61 438 007 155. Packages start from $1000 ( Corporate 1000 MPH Club membership) and can be tailored to your needs and budgets.
Already preparing for the show
Even though its not the real car going to Sydney the workload is not that much different, our standup image is made in 5 x 3 metre sections and Compac Marketing have done a great job of printing it on both sides so that it can be displayed from either side or in a central location. This means it needs to be really well packaged for road transport to avoid scratches and damage. We designed a transport unit for this and it is quite a work of art with all of the panels sliding in from the back and tying in nicely and sandwiched between carpet spacers. Boy this has been a huge job, once again Di Candilo Steel City came to the rescue with all of the product to build this unit. Thank you John, Pete and the Di Candilo crew, very much appreciated.
The display container in early stages of construction | SKF wheel bearings arrive from Italy
Wheel bearings arrive from Italy
Our wheel bearings have arrived, yippee... SKF have manufactured and delivered our cars wheel bearings. The SKF team headed by Mr Darren Kenworthy in Melbourne have supplied my team with the ultimate wheel bearing solution to mate with our cars Calm Aluminium solid wheels. Our wheels are being produced from the highest grade aerospace aluminium available and will rotate at over 10,000 rpm, experiencing a peripheral loading of up to 50,000G. Our bearings will need to allow this to be achieved with the highest possible safety factor and that is not easy when each wheel will weigh 140kg. These bearings are a four set matched combo per wheel and were made in the SKF factory in Italy. They are a 7020 ACD series quad bearing package. Great work SKF thank you for your huge contribution.
From Beverly Hills to Perth
We had a visit this week from a high profile Beverly Hills PR agency who are in negotiations with us regarding the upcoming engine tests we are planning in Mojave CA and the possible record runs in our car next year. Trent Blackett from ROAR Asia Pacific a corporate strategy and management consulting company, made the big trip across from the USA and on viewing our car said he was extremely impressed with our project. Trent promised to do his very best to get us "up to speed" with the numerous high profile contacts he has in America... Let's hope this comes to fruition.
The ROAR guys with Aussie Invader team members Alex Blain (far left) and Rosco (far right)
Test firing of rocket planned by end of year
As mentioned we are pushing hard to perform our engine first test firing before year's end. A big job we need to complete is the rocket motors interface which couples our injector to our rockets ablative nozzle, this has turned out a design head spin which has involved several different companies/ organisations. Our loyal team member and award winning science teacher, Brett Boughton did our preliminary measurements and design calculations, we then asked our friends at Curtin University to carry out the injectors exact measurements to present to VEEM Engineering to machine this component from a section of Calm Aluminium 7070 billet. Gary Leadbeater and Carl Lewis from Curtin University's Engineering section completed this work and gave me the 3D drawings for the manufacture of this part. We have been back and forwards with minor design changes perfecting this component and have only now decided to upgrade our torch ignitor diameter and its impingement angle into the heart of the injector. More changes are needed but we are getting close...
Perth Airport presented with 1000MPH membership
I was invited to do a talk for a company called APP who manage our airports throughout Australia. Peter Kay an old mate and past organiser of our Rally Australia displays had his company sign up for a double 1000 mph Club membership. I thought it would be a great time to meet his team and give them all an update on our project and recite some stories about some of the experiences we had at various airports around the country. These include the time running our Aussie Invader 1 Jet Dragster to 315 mph on Tasmania's Hobart Airstrip for the Hobart Lions Club, Running Ken Warby's Jet Truck on Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne and running through the safety fence at Canberra's airstrip after a chute failure on the adjoining Canberra dragstrip, right behind a plane load of departing pollies. Some exciting times and great memories for the Aussie Invader crew. A related story appeared on our website, click here to read...
Rosco presenting to APP staff
Pete Taylor celebrates 30 years with the team
We again had a full contingent of visitors to our shop this past month with Pete Taylor our teams crew chief and one of our longest serving team members (30 years) inviting a couple of his retired RAAF mates around for a bench racing reunion and a few laughs. A great day was had by all with some great stories being recalled.
L- R Rosco, Andy Hutton, Pete Taylor and Darryl Cutting
The mighty Cliff Steele remembered
Cliff was a great team member and father to Darlene Steele who assisted us greatly with our first excursions to Lake Gairdner in South Australia. Cliff hailed from Canada but made several trips out to Oz to visit and help our team to get firing. He was the most inspirational guy I have ever met and although always arriving here in the middle of Canada's winter he would not bat an eyelid to assist me with promotional work in our remote outback in 40c degree days. On one particular visit to Kalgoorlie in the heart of Western Australia's famous goldfields, we were asked by a French film company to race our jet dragster down the main street of Boulder, Kalgoorlie's sister town. This was on a Sunday morning with no previous arrangements being in place for such a spectacle. The local police chief was surprisingly excited about us doing this but told us it would never happen, it needed his approval, the Shire Presidents nod, and the main roads boss's OK. It will never happen and particularly not on a Sunday we were told. An hour later our Aussie Invader 1 jet dragster blasted down Brockman Street Boulder at over 220 mph much to the delight of the locals and to the amazement of the local officials. This was just one example of the charm this man oozed. RIP Cliff.
There is a lot of development happening with the car, I will elaborate more on this in our next newsletter.
Supporting those that support us
Please do your best to support the great companies who have the vision and foresight to get behind us and the greatest motoring milestone in history, please check them out under our sponsors heading and tell them..."Rosco sent me!"
So until next month, be your very best.
Rosco McGlashan OAM
Fastest Aussie on Earth