PRESS RELEASE

Wichita Falls, Texas: Thursday, 9 August 2001

By Jeff Keaton

Airventure 2001

The CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator (CCTD) stayed in Wichita Falls during the week of Airventure 2001 (July 23 to July 30, 2001) since we did not break the Mu-1 barrier during the prior week's flight-testing. We decided that transporting the CCTD 2200 miles to Oshkosh and back was an unacceptable risk. The CCTD is our only prototype and numerous flight-test goals remain to be accomplished.

Even without the aircraft in attendance, we had good crowds in our Airventure 2001 booth all week. Visitors were wowed with our air-to-air videos of recent flight-testing. The X-Plane software (www.x-plane.com) based flight simulator was a big hit, attracting a broad age range of future and experienced pilots. Some of the best simulator pilots turned out to be young people. But the simulator is more than just a game. Since the X-Plane software is based on accurate aerodynamic models, even seasoned pilots were impressed with its realism.

We even had a few celebrity visitors fly the simulator:

Al explains the turn & bank indicator to Hoot Gibson

John M. Miller -- original test pilot for Pitcairn

Jim Dunn test-flying the simulator in the "poor man's wind tunnel"

Future & past aviation icons (both flying a simulator for the first time)

Airventure 2001 Collage