Romanian Aeronautics Association ARCA Announces Supersonic Airplane Project

On October 1, ARCA launched the first Romanian space rocket, Helen 2, off the Black Sea coast - the first step towards claiming the Google Lunar X Prize competition, which calls for privately-funded teams to put a robot on the surface of the Moon.

The E-111 airplane developed by ARCA during the past year will extend the Association's capacity to launch the Haas II rocket, as well as improve space tourism technologies. The plane was designed to replace the balloons used by ARCA to transport its rockets above the Earth's atmosphere. While the balloons were a quick and inexpensive solution, they have proven their limits and were the main cause for two delays in the launch of the Helen rocket.

ARCA expects to complete work on the E-111 in mid-2012 and the plane will make its first takeoff later in the year. The E-111's first supersonic flight will take place in the first half of 2013.

The program is financed entirely from private sources, through sponsorships and donations. ARCA has not gone public with the program's value.

ARCA, a non-governmental organization and leader in the airspace research field, entered the Google Lunar X Prize contest in 2008. ARCA is developing the lunar orbiter HAAS and the spherical orbiter ELE. The Google Lunar X Prize, launched in 2007, is an international competition which aims at sending to the Moon a robot tasked with taking photos and transmitting video images. The winner of the competition will be awarded a $20 million prize.

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