Land Speed Challenger Coming to Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank - VIDEO ENHANCED STORY

IT'S A CAR! IT'S A PLANE! … IT'S BOTH! LAND SPEED CHALLENGER COMING “BACK HOME” TO BURBANK JUNE 9 & 10 at AUTOBOOKS-AEROBOOKS

Burbank, CA - June 2, 2006: 800 miles-an-hour! Hey, that's a whole bunch of go-fast, even in airplanes! And, when you're planning to do that on the ground, you're really talking about some seriously supersonic speed. You had better get something really fast to do it in!

In fact, what you'd best do is get a decommissioned Lockheed F-104A Starfighter, clip off its wings, put some wheels on it, fire up its spectacularly-powerful J-79 engine and point it waaaaay over that way and go after getting the unlimited Land Speed record back for the good old US-of-A!

And that's exactly what Ed Shadle and his intrepid NORTH AMERICAN EAGLE crew is planning to do. And they're planning on going 800 miles-per-hour PLUS just to bust that record wide open!

On Friday afternoon June 9, and all day on Saturday the 10, the incredible 50,000 horsepower LSR machine will be in Burbank and on public display at the legendary Autobooks-Aerobooks store. To the great relief of the Burbank Police Department, the former-airplane-turned-car will not be making any trial runs in Burbank, even though that's were it was “born” in the late 1950's.

CLICK HERE to watch a very nicely produced video clip of the North American Eagle.

“We're going to park it right out front on Magnolia.” said store owner Chet Knox. “The fuselage is only seven feet wide without the wings.” (not mentioning the wild carplane's 56-foot 8-inch overall length). “This will be a wonderful opportunity for people to see a remarkable vehicle that began its life right up the street at the legendary Lockheed Skunk Works right here in Burbank.”

Of note is the fact that this particular machine was at one time or another “driven” (flown) by some of the greats of American aviation including Chuck Yeager, Pete Knight, and the late Scott Crossfield.

Before his recent death Crossfield had advised Shadle on the handling characteristics of the F-104 in which he had practiced “dead stick” (engine off) landings preparing for his history-making 4,500 mph ride aboard the X-15 in 1967.

“This is a unique situation for us,” Knox concluded. Our name is Autobooks-Aerobooks and we specialize in books and other items based on that theme, but this is the first time that anyone's really blended both sides of our store into one outreagous machine. This is really going to be fun!”

For more information about the land-speed project visit www.landspeed.com