We'll take a bit of a break over the next couple weeks and get reacquainted with our familes. :-) After that we'll get back busy as heck polishing up the craft for the next round.
Here's the rough plan:
We were happily surprised with the performance of the vehicle. It truly exceeded the speed we had set as our project goal in it's very first run even though it ran out of room on the playa. The second and third runs were progressively faster to the point the vehicle is going faster than it was designed for. We'll have to rethink several parts of the vehicle in response to this very good news.
To increase the speed even more and set the very highest record the vehicle is capable of we need to now work on the aerodynamics of the chassis. We now expect to be bucking apparent headwinds of 40mph or more (up from the 20mph we designed for). Fairings for the chassis, pilot and wheels will make a significant difference at those speeds. A prop spinner and nacelle on the tower will also help.
We have to rethink drive wheels and tires -- we went to Ivanpah with a brand new set of knobby mountain bike tires and in the course of no more than 5 total miles of 'under power' distand and less than 2 miles of greater than windspeed running (where the horsepower requirements get stiff) we cleaned the knobs clear off of the right side of the cart. The right side is the side the torque reaction of the prop is trying to lift.
Still a lot of work to do to get a ratified record in the books.
