Six passengers were saved from a possible disaster when Pilot Michael Rushton had kept his composure during an aircraft emergency yesterday at 11am in Hilo. Rushton had managed to maneuver the Australian-made Gippsland GA8 Airvan, owned by Island Hoppers safely landed on Highway 130.

No passengers were reported injured in this incident. “The landing was perfect,” he said. “not a scratch. Nothing.”

Rushton had declined to talk about what caused the mechanical problem and had made a humorous comment instead. He told the police, “I got no tip” after the passengers left.

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Racers, make way to the new sky rocket! The Rocket Racing League, a long-promised attempt to create a kind of National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) of the skies, will hold its first exhibition races this year, its founders said. The races are guaranteed as a kind of living video game — but louder — with a virtual raceway laid out in the sky that will be visible on projection screens at the site of each event.

Racers in rocket-powered aircraft will fly 4 laps at approximately five-mile “track” at anywhere from 150 feet to 1,500 feet above the ground. The planes, designed to fly at 340 miles an hour, will start side by side, two at a time. The pilots incorporate professional test pilots who received their training in the military and a former astronaut. As pilots follow the course, spectators will be able to see alternate views from remote cameras and the cockpits. The league has signed up six teams so far.

“We’re taking the business of auto racing and the business of air shows and we’re combining them,” said Granger Whitelaw, the league’s chief executive and a partner in professional auto racing teams. The races will consist of four heats, each of which will take about 15 minutes, he said.

The announcements are to be made at a news conference planned for Monday at the Yale Club in Midtown Manhattan. The first public taste of rocket racing will take place August 1 and August 2 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Whitelaw said, at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association air show. It will involve two of the sleek aircraft developed for the league. The racers will also perform at air shows in Nevada and New Mexico.

The founders alleged that competition should begin in 2009. For more information, visit their website: rocketracingleague.com

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