Johnny Bohmer Racing

By Steven Siceloff,
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

March 11 may prove to be the day when the plans to make Kennedy Space Center a shared spaceport showed the first practical success, according to some of the people who coordinated five unique operations at the Shuttle Landing Facility that day.

The SLF hosted NASA’s Morpheus lander free-flight test that day, along with a NASCAR team conducting aerodynamic testing, the Starfighters company running its modified jet fighters through afterburner evaluations, and medical evacuation helicopters conducting safety checks and procedure tests – all while the facility itself underwent its own construction work.

“I think it was a glimpse into the future of Kennedy Space Center,” said David Cox, Partnerships Development manager at Kennedy. “To me it shows that we are really turning the corner from being a government-only focused space center to really being a commercially shared space center. It really is a huge shift in the culture.”

Performance Power LLC of West Palm Beach coordinated closely with the NASCAR and Morpheus teams, along with Starfighters to craft a precise plan that met everyone’s needs said Performance Power owner Johnny Bohmer. They also met in-person with the construction and helicopter safety test crews.

“We all had the same goal: let’s work together,” Bohmer said. “I feel like we’ve gone to another level and we’ve proven that we were able to pull off something we thought we could do. Precise coordination created a ‘win-win’ for everyone during the three-day testing session.”

The successful formula is expected to be the basis for policies and procedures that can be repeated as the SLF takes on increasingly diverse users under Space Florida, which is in negotiations to operate and maintain the unique national asset.

“The beauty of it was that everybody was willing to give a little so no one had to give a lot,” Cox said. “That willingness made it so everyone could accomplish all of their objectives. I think the first thing that we did was establish a cooperative spirit, and we had extremely effective communications and that allowed us to do so much with just a short period of time.”

Typically, the runway hosts a single user each day with the occasional dual mission, such as an aircraft arriving. It will allow aircraft testing one day, car runs another and experimental rockets or unmanned aerial vehicles on another. Even that is a shift from just two years ago.

“Its primary purpose was to bring back and land orbiters and now that we’re not doing that, you can find some more uses and some unique uses that you couldn’t find before because you had to be available at any time for a shuttle to come back,” said John Graves, who coordinates operations at the SLF for NASA’s Flight Operations department.

The team of people involved in the process credited an intense focus on communications and flexibility with getting all the work done.

“They basically let us all work within our own structures instead of saying this is how it’s going to be,” said Rick Svetkoff, owner of Starfighters.

The users employed creative means to allow each other the room they needed. For example, the Morpheus project, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, is in the middle of an intense and successful test flight campaign that calls for increasingly ambitious free flights by the unmanned lander in an area north of the runway. Fueled by methane and oxygen, the Morpheus lifts off like a rocket, then goes into its automated landing profile for descent to its landing pad. The safety requirements prohibit anyone from being within about a mile of the craft when it reaches flight pressure and makes its flight.

Accommodating the safety needs, which remain paramount to all the operations at the SLF, meant drawing down the time the NASCAR team had for its runs. An adjustment of lunch time by the auto team along with an adjustment of flight time by Morpheus meant no time lost or missed objectives for either.

“In the end we got everybody happy with the idea,” said Greg Gaddis of NASA’s Morpheus team.

“We all had the will, so we found the way,” Cox said.

The number of companies anticipating using the runway grows seemingly by the day with several mentioning it as a possibility for launching flights into space straight off the runway and gliding back to it, or using the runway’s vast width and 3.2-mile length to host a gigantic carrier aircraft lifting a booster to altitude for a space launch.

“We typically host three or four people wanting to take a look at the SLF for one use or another, so there’s a lot of interest in coming out here,” Graves said. “Hopefully what we did becomes a common occurrence and not that big of a deal.”

The lessons also may be incorporated into the adaptation of Kennedy’s other research and development facilities as they undergo their own unique adjustments to host more commercial uses.

“No matter what facility you’re in, it goes back to knowing the needs and working with the customers to get them what they want and make everybody happy,” Graves said. “These lessons are applicable to any facility that has multiple customers.”

The uses could be just as diverse, as well, as evidenced by the variety of companies that have signed agreements or contacted Kennedy to use its research and development resources.

“I think the SLF is probably one of the most conducive to these kinds of sharing activities,” Cox said. “Another facility is going to be the Vehicle Assembly Building one day. I’m sure the Space Station Processing Facility could end up with a similar day-in-the-life, if you will, because it has a very open configuration that can be tailored to different customer requirements.”

By Steven Siceloff,
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

A major name in automotive development brought one of his exotic vehicles to the 3.5-mile-long runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida recently to evaluate its aerodynamics and to see how the car would handle throughout its performance range.

“You can have the smartest engineers and designers, but until you get the car going out there on a runway, you don’t know what the car’s going to do,” said John Hennessey, founder of Hennessey Performance and maker of the Hennessey Venom GT, a high-performance production sports car.

For taxpayers and consumers of exotic vehicles or everyday cars, testing in actual conditions pays off in numerous ways. Technology developed in all aspects of auto making routinely find their way into everyday cars, whether it be increased fuel efficiency or safety gear.

“Almost everything in cars has started in racing,” said Johnny Bohmer, owner of Performance Power Racing in West Palm Beach. Performance Power Racing negotiated a Space Act Agreement with Kennedy in 2011 to perform aerodynamic and other research evaluations at the Kennedy runway. He collaborates with companies like Hennessey to accomplish the testing, too. “It trickles down and all that stuff is information passed on to other people and everything trickles down into passenger cars. You’ve got to push boundaries to get results.”

The Shuttle Landing Facility is one of only about half-a-dozen places in the world that has the kind of room and infrastructure to make test runs safely.

NASCAR and Le Mans teams have also tested their vehicles at the SLF recently. Built for the demands of the space shuttle, the runway is one of the longest in the world and extremely wide. It’s also concrete, so there’s no salt or sand to kick up into the cars as there is at other locations that are often ancient lakebeds or other natural surfaces.

“From a safety perspective, you have a lot more room to negotiate if there’s a problem,” Hennessey said. “You feel like this is really the safest place for what we’ve got to do.”

The rules for the runway’s use require legitimate and measurable engineering data collection that can be used for research and development, said David Cox, Kennedy’s Partnership Development manager. There needs to be a strong research and development aspect to the test runs in order to justify the use of a unique, taxpayer-funded facility, he said.

“When Performance Power asked if they could do some testing with the Hennessey Venom GT, they said they needed to confirm some of the aerodynamic and suspension performance throughout the entire operating range of this production car and that really helps show that there’s no safety concerns which could lead to a potential recall which can be very expensive to the manufacturers,” Cox said. “So that’s really what we approved for the testing activities.”

Like all cars that are tested at Kennedy, the Venom was outfitted with numerous sensors and a raft of electronics to evaluate the machine and conditions in ways that space shuttle engineers would recognize instantly. From GPS antennas to accurately calculate and cross-reference speed and acceleration to sensors in the shocks that gauged the down force on the car as the air moved over it, the Hennessey team put tremendous effort into finding out everything they could about their vehicle.

“The aerodynamics is huge,” Hennessey said. “There’s this balance between down force and stability. We’re trying to balance keeping the car stable and still achieving a speed.”

For Hennessey, the testing also is crucial to validating the safety of the car throughout its performance range.

“Now if somebody goes out in the car and wants to push the car, Hennessey knows the car will be safe,” Bohmer said.

Adjustments tend to be minute and based on feedback from the sensors that show things the driver and team can’t see on their own.

“The data logging that he’s doing, a human can’t pick up,” Bohmer said. “He has to do this because it’s pretty much mandatory if you’re a manufacturer that you know all the parameters. You can’t sell something and not know what it can do.”

How Fast? 283.232 mph

Rather than set this at the famous Texas Mile, the team behind this 1,700 horsepower Ford GT ran at one of NASA’s strips to set the standing mile record last winter.

There’s an element of the late twentieth century’s infamous ‘Space Race’ happening at the moment, albeit with less nuclear Armageddoney-ness. Because in the same month that Felix Baumgartner JUMPED FROM SPACE, we have a Ford GT that could very well have powered itself into orbit.

Well, a heavily modified, twin-turbo Ford GT, that is, owned and driven by a Mr Johnny Bohmer of Performance Power Racing. He took his 1,700bhp GT to the landing facility at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, shooed incoming space shuttles away from the huge strip and buried the throttle.

The result is a new, verified Guinness World Record for the fastest standing mile in a street car: on 16 October 2012, Mr Bohmer drove his ‘BADD GT’ to 283.232mph. That, ladies and gentlemen of the Interwebs, is pretty ruddy quick.

Says Mr Bohmer: “By NASA allowing us access to a one of a kind facility, we are given the opportunity to explore these technologies. We’re just scratching the surface of where these systems can be utilised outside the racing arena.”

That’s right – he’s a serious man on a mission to bring world record-breaking tech into vehicles of all types. Though we suspect it’ll be a while before we see a 300mph Ford Fiesta. Underneath sits the same 5.4-litre Ford V8 as a standard GT (with upgraded internal components), but the supercharger bits were ripped out and replaced with a twin-turbo system and upgraded factory intercooler. The fuel system was also redesigned to pump 25 per cent more fuel than standard, what with there being 1700 horses and all.

The engine cooling system has had a minor reroute, likewise the gearbox remains standard with just a few bits of strengthening to support that power. The chassis remains totally untouched. As Mr Bohmer told TopGear.com: “We drive this car on a regular basis in town and even drop the kids off to school in it.” School-run mums of Florida, beware.

He’s got form, has Johnny. Last year he set a then world record at a piffling 223.42mph in a Ford GT too. And it appears 283 isn’t even enough either. Posting on his website earlier today, Johnny said: “We will go much faster very soon”.

Performance Power Racing reset the record for the fastest standing mile (car) this week at 283.232 mph.

Johnny Bohmer, owner of Performance Power Racing (USA), broke the record at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, using a 2006 Ford GT to set the record.

The standing mile is an event in which a vehicle, from a dead stop, accelerates completely through the one mile mark.

The West Palm Beach based Research and Development Company worked directly with Pratt and Whitney on a new high specific strength, high temperature tolerant, Aluminum Alloy named Pandalloy™.

Parts were specifically designed and manufactured out of Pandalloy for the Ford GT used in the attempt.

“Our entire team has worked very hard to get here and we are proud to be able to put an American car in the record books as the fastest street car in the world.” Mr. Bohmer said about the achievement. “By NASA allowing us access to a one of a kind facility, we are given the opportunity to push the limits of these technologies and explore their benefits. An immense amount of research and development went in to this 3 year project and we are just scratching the surface of where these systems can be utilized outside of the racing arena.”

The run was measured by Tag Heuer timing equipment and verified by officials from the International Mile Racing Association, who recognized the run as a new IMRA world record.

Johnny’s crew included Matt Lundy (lead design tech), Jeff McEachran, Frank Richert, George Brown and Matt Lilly.

Sponsors of the car included Big Stuff, Eye Candy Performance Car Care, Magna Fuel, Moran Racing Engines, Snow Performance, NLR Power and Control, MPR Racing Engines, Pandalloy Extreme Performance Aluminum, Performance Power Materials, Precision Turbo & Engine, and Serious Autosport.