Racing Of The Future - In Your Hand Today
Rocket racing is intended to be the racing sport of the future. The Rocket Racing League is founded by members of, and featuring technology from, the X-prize. That means the same kind of advanced technologies that are launching people into space is creating this new fast-paced sport.
Rocket racing will feature a field of specially-designed aircraft powered by ethanol-fueled rocket engine. The engines provide enough thrust that the craft go from a dead stop to airborne in 3 seconds. The planes then fly through a course of virtual pylons in the sky, either in a timed race or side-by-side with another plane. While the league has not officially started competition, they are testing the craft and the courses now as you can see in the image above.
If the idea of racing at several hundred miles per hour excites you, then you may want to check out the new Rocket Racing League app for the iPhone and iPod touch.
The Rocket Racing League app features the same controls as a real rocket plane. You steer the craft by tilting the phone left, right, up and down and trigger the rocket motor and air brakes by tapping the controls in the bottom-right corner. As in the real craft, flying consists of turning the motor on to trigger a burst of acceleration, and gliding between bursts.
The game features tutorials, single player and multiplayer modes. The game does not integrate with any existing game networks so the multiplayer mode is handled by hosting or joining games others have hosted. This can be somewhat limiting as the game is fairly new and it might be difficult to find someone willing to host. There is, however, a global leaderboard for when using the single player mode.
For the flying and racing enthusiast, this is definitely a title worth checking out.
