While on duty for the Civil Air Patrol at the annual Watsonville Airshow and Fly-in, I had the opportunity to stop by the Air Force's "Project Supercar" trailer. This travelling station is used mainly for Air Force recruiting and its tech features. To have access to the inside of the trailer, I signed up on the Air Force's website and received a wristband that had the same effect as your thumb on a thumbprint reader. After seeing what the Air Force had to offer, I stepped outside of the trailer, looked to my right, and saw the dream everybody wanted to see. The Air Force Mustang X1 supercar, an airplane without wings, seemed like it was cleared for takeoff. The gullwing doors gave it that "airplane" style, and revealed the cockpit/dashboard of the car. This car is designed to look like an F-16 inside. An F-16 joystick is used to control the gears, and a yoke to serve the same application as a steering wheel. Designers wanted to relate the inside of the car to an F-16 as much as possible, so they added an ejection seat. The ejection seat is obviously disabled, as there's no sunroof on the car. Its infrared vision, or commonly called night vision, allows the driver to see the outside clearly and brightly by detecting given off heat and radiation. Strobe lights are an added feature, but aren't quite necessary. Chances are that if you're at your state's national or largest airshow you will see and definitely hear this car rev up its engines, and maybe even get a chance to sit inside the cabin... or cockpit.
No comments:
Post a Comment