The Rocket Racing League may hold an exhibition in Melbourne, Florida this summer: Rocket Racing coming to Melbourne? - Florida Today (via spacetoday.net).

An announcement from the Rocket Racing League:

Soar Through a 3D Raceway-In-The-Sky in Rocket Racing League Game for iPhone and iPod Touch
First Release in RRL Video Game Franchise Where Rocket Racer Reality Meets Virtual Racing

ORLANDO, FL. June 16, 2010 – Rocket Racing is the newest and most fascinating air sport of the 21st Century that can now be experienced as an exhilarating racing game for iPhone® and iPod® touch. The Rocket Racing League® game is based on the real-world Rocket Racing League (RRL) where Top Gun pilots maneuver rocket-powered aircraft through a virtual 3D Raceway-In-The-Sky™. In the game, players take control of a fully customizable Rocket Racer® aircraft and pilot their way through floating 3D obstacle courses set in visually stunning environments.

“Rocket Racing League is poised to become the world’s first truly interactive sporting franchise,” said Dr. Peter Diamandis, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Rocket Racing League. “With the release of this app, the experience of flying rocket-powered aircraft in competition comes straight to one’s fingertips. We plan to increase the level of interactivity with each new game and platform rendition, ultimately culminating into game play that offers full competitions between the gamer and real-world pilots during live RRL events.”

Gamers and app fans can test their piloting and racing skills in single-player career mode or head-to-head against other virtual pilots via Bluetooth or LAN-based Wi-Fi Multi-Player. Featuring four race types (Lap, Drag, Arcade, Ground) and five track locations (Nevada Canyon, California Coast, City, Tropical Island, Space), the Rocket Racing League is accessible for players of all ages and skill levels. Additional locations and tracks will be released in the coming weeks.

A reader points me to this article about the Tulsa Air Show with the Rocket Racing exhibition last weekend and about Jim Bridenstine who organized the event: Rocketman: Space museum head sees dreams flying into reality - Tulsa World.

Around 40,000 Tulsa-area residents — about four times more than Bridenstine expected — witnessed the RRL's first public showcase of its rocket-powered aircraft.

Bridenstine's own wife of almost six years, Michelle, and the couple's two children waited two hours in traffic to see two X-Racer demonstrations. Countless others watched the action via a live webcast at tulsaworld.com/rrl.

Michael Belfiore writes about the Rocket Racing League exhibition at Tulsa: Rocket Racing League Is Back in the Air - Popularmechanics.com - Apr.29.10.

A big RRL picture set: Picasa Web Albums - Rocket Racing League.

A report by Miles O'Brien on the Rocket Racing exhibition on Saturday in Tulsa:



More videos here.

Jeff Foust has posted the following video of an X-Racer in the sky over the Tulsa airport:


And here he reports on the RR event yesterday: Rocket Racers take to the skies in Tulsa - NewSpace Journal.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the webcast of the second round of X-racer flights that took place in the late afternoon. Jeff Foust says the flights were abbreviated due to " an anomaly of some kind with 1 of the racers shortly after takeoff". They both landed safely.

Generally, though, it seemed a successful debut. Just the basic system was demonstrated but they plan to experiment and improve on the experience for the crowd at other events in the coming year. The vehicles will fly lower, for example, as their confidence in the vehicles' performance and reliability grows. I was really impressed with the animated virtual gate display that will be superimposed on the videos of the races. This should make the difference between the audience seeing some vehicles flying around randomly versus seeing them in a dynamic race.

Jeff posted some pictures from the event here.

Some Tulsa area articles about the event, which attracted a larger than expected audience of 40,000:
/-- Rocket Racing Show soars in Tulsa - Tulsa World

/-- Drivers wait in line up to two hours for Air and Rocket Racing Show - KRMG

/-- 2NEWS chats with Buzz Aldrin -

/-- Thousands Turn Out For Tulsa QT Air Show - NewsOn6.com - KOTV.com

The first flight demo of the two X-racers seemed to go well. Bit hard from the webcast to get a sense of what it would look like from the ground. Mostly we saw four camera views from the vehicle.

They flew fairly high in this first public exhibition. Peter Diamandis said they will refuel and re-fly again in an hour or so. They will fly a bit lower and in a more coordinated pattern this time. The long term plan is to gain experience with the vehicles and fly closer and closer to the ground in future exhibitions.

The virtual gates were not displayed while the X-racers were flying. Sounds like they just got the software working recently and could only do the demo with the Cessna for this show. Should be really impressive when they get it all working together. The gate demo was quite impressive.

Pictures from the show: twitpic.com/photos/RRLeague

The live webcast streaming of the Rocket Racing exhibition at the Tulsa Air show has been going on for the past hour. The X-Racers are about to do their exhibition flights.

In the meantime, a small Cessna 402 plane took off and demonstrated how the racers will fly through virtual gates in the sky that are seen on the pilots' helmut visors and on the videos displayed on Jumbotrons and on TV (similar to the way first down lines are displayed on the field for American football games on TV.)

Below are screen captures as the Cessna 402 through the gates. The lower shows the fireworks style reaction as the plane goes through the gate:

Live webcast streaming of the Rocket Racing exhibition at the Tulsa Air show starts in half an hour.

Jeff Foust is at the air show and is posting comments at twitter.com/jeff_foust.

Update 1:12 pm: The webcast has started with Miles O'Brien and Peter Diamandis:

The X-Racers flew today in preparation for tomorrow's Rocket Racing exhibition at the Tulsa Air Show.

Live webcasting starts at 12:00 pm CT (1:00 pm ET).

More resources:
/-- twitter.com/RRLeague
/-- twitter.com/PeterDiamandisr
/-- Twitpic / RRLeague

Here is an interesting report about the X-Racer rocket vehicles and the preparations the pilots are making for the exhibition flights at the Tulsa Airshow this weekend: Daily Planet : April 15, 2010 : Clip 2. (The RR segments starts about 1:10 into the main clip.)

An announcement from the Rocket Racing League:

Rocket Racing League® (RRL®) Announces 2-Hour Live Webcast of First Public Demonstration Flights of the Mark III X-Racer® - Hosted by Award-Winning National Anchor Miles O'Brien with Special Guests NASA Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Owen Garriott, and John Herrington, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, and others.

LOG-IN:
http://www.livestream.com/rocketracing

WHAT:
Star Wars pod racing meets NASCAR as the Rocket Racing League (www.xracing.com) takes to the sky at the QuikTrip Air & Rocket Racing Show in Tulsa, OK. RRL will webcast its first-ever public demonstration flights of the brand new Mark III X-Racer® vehicle powered by Armadillo Aerospace's advanced rocket propulsion system, and flown by two of the best test pilots in the world. Also, see the unveiling of the Rocket Racing League video game.

WHEN:
Saturday April 24, 2010 12pm-2pm Central Time/ 1700-1900 GMT

WHO:
The exciting 2-hour webcast will be hosted by Miles O'Brien and feature the RRL X-Racer® vehicles and interviews and commentary from the following distinguished guests:

Buzz Aldrin, NASA Astronaut
Russell Blink, VP Engineering & Co-Founder, Armadillo Aerospace
Jim Bridenstine, RRL Team Owner, Tulsa Air & Space Museum Executive Director
Michael D'Angelo, Chief Operation Officer, RRL
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Co-Founder, RRL
Len Fox, Chief Test Pilot, RRL
Owen K. Garriott (Ph.D.), NASA Astronaut
Richard Garriott, Private Cosmonaut
John Herrington, NASA Astronaut
Honorable James Inhofe, U.S. Senator, State of Oklahoma
Dave Morss, Test Pilot, RRL

As mentioned earlier, the Rocket Racing League's updated website is now providing lots of info, pictures and videos. See also the RRL Official Youtube Channel.

The Tulsa Air Show is next Saturday. I don't see anything about live webcasts but I expect that videos of the rocket racer flights will be posted not too long after.

[Update: As noted in a comment here, there will be a live webcast with Miles O'Brien of the Rocket Racing events at livestream.com/rocketracing.]

With Armadillo Aerospace developing the X-Racers, I would suggest that RRL work out an arrangement with Armadillo for exhibition flights at such events of one of Armadillo's vertical takeoff and landing vehicles. I thought the Lunar Lander Challenge flights were great fun to watch. It was marvelous when a vehicle came to a complete stop after a vertical rise and then shifted sideways. Such exhibitions would be great for air shows. (In fact, Armadillo carried out LLC flights at the 2007 X PRIZE Cup/Air show at Hollomon AFB in NM.) Would be a great addition to rocket racing events to have VTVL flights in between races. Perhaps eventually they could even offer the vertical drag racing events that John Carmack has talked about occasionally.

Yet another announcement from Rocket Racing League:

Rocket Racing, Inc and OnBoard Images Partner for Air-to-Ground Video and X-Racer® Cockpit Camera Mounts to Enhance the Rocket Racing League® (RRL®)

ORLANDO, FL (April 14, 2010) – Rocket Racing, Inc, an interactive sports, aviation and entertainment company rocket-powered aircraft, and OnBoard Images, the leading provider of top quality in-cockpit video systems for extreme environments, including stock car racing, marine sports and aviation aerobatics, have announced a partnership to enhance the video components of the Rocket Racing League® (RRL®).

OnBoard Images will supply cockpit camera mounts for the X-Racer vehicles flown by RRL in competition, and air-to-ground video links for the Rocket Racing League. Through these enhanced video systems, RRL is able to combine the exhilaration of racing with the power of rockets and piloting excellence.

The video provided by Onboard Images will give RRL fans and viewers worldwide the opportunity to see the X-Racer flights from the pilot’s perspective in real time as the events unfold. Holding an FCC 2gig broadcasters license, OnBoard allows interference-free live video links from aircraft to ground, providing viewers the optimal RRL experience.

“The millions of fans watching remotely on TV and PCs at home will experience the thrill of RRL via OnBoard Images’ unique remote and rocket-mounted cameras, giving fans the sensation of riding right alongside famed RRL pilots,” said RRL Chief Operations Officer Michael D’Angelo.

“Rocket Racing League is on the cutting edge in so many ways,” said OnBoard Images President Mark Magin. “As the leading provider in camera systems in the aviation industry, we are proud to be a part of this next generation of air racing competitions.”

Alan Boyle writes about the Rocket Racing teleconference on Tuesday: Rocket racers rise again - Cosmic Log/msnbc.com - Apr.13.10.

Here's a video posted at Youtube back on February 24th in which John Carmack describes the propulsion system for the X-racers:

Here are my notes from the Rocket Racing League teleconference:

[Update: A report on the teleconference : Rocket Racing League to Unveil New Air Hot Rod - SPACE.com.

As noted in the comments here, much of what was presented in the teleconference was reported in the April 5th issue of The Lurio Report.
]

/-- New website makeover plus new URL: www.xracing.com.
/-- 1200 picts
/-- Exhibition at QuikTrip Air & Rocket Racing Show, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday April 24, 2010
/-- Miles O'Brien to report from show

/-- Peter Diamandis, Co- Founder, RRL:
/--- Want to combine excitement of racing + rockets
/--- Mk 3 X-racer
/--- Planning demos at several air shows in next year
/--- Will test different formats to see what offers the best sport & best interactive experience
/--- Races in 2011
/--- Will pursue a Formula 1 racing model
/--- Income from sponsors, TV, gaming, concession sales at events, etc
/--- Two financial backers brought in during the past year
/--- Pleased with tech development progress

/-- Michael D’Angelo, Chief Operation Officer, RRL:
/--- Virtual 3D raceway
/--- 2 rocket racers currently operating
/--- Have flown them simultaneously
/--- 50 flights, 350 relights so far
/--- Acts more like a rocket with wings than an airplane with rocket engine
/--- Velocity aircraft airframe - in 3rd gen version
/--- Mkt 3 is latest configuration
/--- Fighter style canopy - enhanced visibility
/--- Central single seat
/--- Re-designed cockpit for single pilot
/--- Several mods to the air frame
/--- Ethanol / LOX engine from Armadillo Aerospace
/--- Plum color seeding
/--- Several improvements - e.g. enhanced igniter
/--- Avionics enhancements
/--- Virtual race track is projected onto visor so the pilot doesn't have to look down at a screen
/--- Helmet senses orientation so pilot will see proper line of sight whenever the head moves

/-- Dave Morris [Morss], Test Pilot, RRL
/--- Civilian test pilot and air racer
/--- Sante Fe team pilot
/--- Been with RRL for 5 mon
/--- Has glider experience so familiar with changing from power to glide
/--- Every landing is a glider landing
/--- Rocket only on for a few secs at a time
/--- Must continually manage and plan energy budget
/--- Noise is very different than at an air show or auto race
/--- Will be looking for more pilots

/-- Jim Bridenstine, RRL Team Owner, Tulsa Air & Space Museum Executive Director
/--- Military fighter jet background
/--- Tulsa museum ecstatic to get RRL exhibition
/--- This will help their effort to land a retired shuttle to the museum
/--- He is also a team owner
/--- Several RRL demos during the show day
/--- Teams are excited about getting a x-racer of their own

Q&A:
/--- What further developments needed to get RR off the ground?
/--- Lots of flight time experience. Many practical details to practice and improve.
/--- Peter: Have really brought down costs of operating a rocket powered vehicle
/--- Learning a lot about routine operations with frequent flights

/-- Those without access to the rocket vehicles can practice with prop planes on Velocity vehicle
/-- 6 teams so far
/-- Welcome new teams to apply
/-- Costs are in 1 to 2 million to join depending on equipment purchased

/-- Regulations?
/--- Certification process
/--- Starts with experimental permit mode
/--- Then exhibition mode
/--- Then go to air racing certificate
/--- Also will use a Crew & pilot training certificate

/-- Structure of races?
/--- Will test out different types of formats to see fan response
/--- E.g. single, double or multiple vehicle demos will be tested
/--- Looking for max fan excitement

/--- Safety issues?
/--- From ground ops to flights there are extensive safety procedures in place
/--- Energy at any point in trajectory set to always fall short of spectators
/--- Abort scenarios prepared

/-- Recycling currently inside of 15 min - refuel (1000 lb), checklist, etc
/-- Probably will reach 10 min

/-- Will develop Mkt IV vehicle over the coming year and aim for start of first official race season in late 2011.

There is going to be Rocket Racing League teleconference for the press on Tuesday at 1:00pm.

League officials, pilots, team owners and X-Racer vehicle and engine developers will brief reporters on the status of the latest developments in the Rocket Racing League. Specifically discussed will be the new X-Racer vehicles, new high performance rocket engines, pilots, testing and demonstration schedule, and the featured content for the QuikTrip Air & Rocket Racing Show scheduled for April 24, 2010 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I'll try to listen in.

I see that their website has gotten a makeover. Note that they have two URLs now:
/-- www.rocketracingleague.com
/-- www.xracing.com

A press release from Rocket Racing League and Elbit Systems:

Rocket Racing League® and Elbit Systems Ltd. Introduce Targo™Racer Competition-Class Aviator’s Helmet Mounted Display to Fly Raceway-In-The-Sky™

ORLANDO, FL (April 8, 2010) - Rocket Racing League® (RRL®), a sports and gaming franchise based on competitions of piloted rocket-powered aircraft, and Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:ESLT) (Elbit Systems), an international leader in helmet-mounted displays, this week announced the successful completion of the first flight campaign of the Targo™Racer, a revolutionary aviator’s helmet mounted display with advanced avionics that will enable RRL pilots to competitively fly RRL’s 3D Raceway-In-The-Sky™ (RITS™).

Based on a collaborative partnership between Elbit Systems and RRL, with support from RRL avionics partner, the University Research Foundation (URF) Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory (MADL), Targo™Racer helmet display was developed to enable RRL pilots to receive mission and race critical flight information directly onto their helmet visor within their natural line-of-sight therefore increasing safety and performance. The Targo™Racer helmet display delivers raceway geometry, altitude, speed, gravitational pull and other parameters directly in front of the aviator's eyes on a crisp off-the-visor display that adjusts in real time.

RRL will debut the Targo™Racer helmet display in flight exhibitions and dynamic ground displays on April 24, 2010 at the QuikTrip Air & Rocket Racing Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma (www.tulsaairshow.com).

“With more than 2500 pounds of thrust, RRL pilots go from zero to full throttle in a fraction of a second and wheels-up in 4 seconds – think NASCAR or Formula One racing in the sky,” explains RRL co-founder Peter Diamandis. “The Targo™Racer’s state of the art capabilities give our pilots, which are some of the most skilled in the world, the advanced avionics they need to deliver the most dramatic performance for our fans and sponsors.”

The Targo™Racer helmet display leverages Elbit Systems’ highly successful Targo family of helmet-mounted display and tracking capability. Within the Rocket Racing League’s Cockpit-Based Augmented Reality System, the Targo Racer helmet display provides the final building block to support safe competitive racing through the Raceway-In-The-Sky.

“X-Racer vehicles provide a high profile platform to demonstrate our unique Helmet Mounted Avionics (HMA) technology in an environment where pilots are navigating their way through a virtual raceway-in-the-sky in head-to-head competitions,” said Yoram Shmuely, Executive Vice President and Co-General Manager of Elbit Systems' Aerospace Division. “We are collaboratively pushing the envelope in aerospace and avionics technology.”

From a spectator perspective, fans can expect to see the racing action live and in real-time on large projection screens, or remotely, via TV or PC, fed by the Ground and Air Based Augmented Reality Systems and dynamic imagery streams from the Targo™Racer and Cockpit-Based Augmented Reality Systems. Additional remote and rocket-mounted cameras give fans the further sensation of riding right alongside famed RRL pilots.

Russell Blink's flickr photostream has some new pictures including this one showing two rocket racers in the air at the same time.

Update: Looks like Armadillo is planning on burning a lot of methane: Liquid Methane - Federal Business Opportunities.

Update 2: Is Armadillo involved with the mysterious Project M? Russel Blink's photostream - Mar.13.10