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This J-79, built by General Electric in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is a display piece taken to various public apprearances and school/classroom visits by the North American Eagle(tm) team. The North American Eagle(tm) project is a group of volunteers who gather weekly at a hangar in Spanaway, WA to slowly and carefully put together a jet powered vehicle made from a former F-104A Starfighter fuselage they've modified for the purpose of being the fastest. The project's goal is to bring the world land speed record back to North America from the British team - ThrustSSC - by reaching the supersonic speed of 800 MPH on the ground.
The J-79 engine the NAE will use to set the record is donated to the project by S&S Turbine Servies, LTD of Ft. St. John, British Columbia, a sponsor. It has been fine tuned to produce roughly 52,000 horsepower and 20,000 lbs. of thrust. Calculated by a scientist/mathematician at the Dryden Research Center, the vehicle in its current configuration with this engine would be capable of reaching 835 MPH in 3.7 miles if it starts from a stop in full afterburner. This would take approximately 30 seconds time. However, this is purely theorectical, in that the vehicle would not start from a stop using full afterburner. Instead, it would start out from a stop slowly at first until a speed of over 100 MPH is achieved and then the afterburner would be applied by the driver, Ed Shadle.
For more information about this project, go to www.landspeed.com
