If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Plaster City next Saturday, October 6th, you might want to stop for a few hours.
Where’s Plaster City? Off the Evan Hewes Highway (S80) that parallels Interstate 8 which in turn parallels the Mexican border in Southern California (or go to 32.79072N, 115.85541W).
What’s happening there? A group of amateur rocketeers going by the name of Polecat Aerospace are going semi-pro with the launch of their – get this – 24 foot long replica of a Star Wars X-Wing fighter with a 19 foot wingspan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars! Powered by four Class M (which I am unreliably informed stands for “monstrous”) solid fuel rocket motors the machine will even move its wings to “attack position” in flight!
There’s a nice write up on Gizmodo (which incorrectly noted the intended launch date to be October 10th) and the project is documented on the Polecat Aerospace site.
Outstanding, nay, world-class nerdiness. Gentlemen of Polecat Aerospace, we salute you!
