Horonuku picks up speed

Piloted by Glenn Ashby, Horonuku has begun its New Zealand based testing phase at the RNZAF base at Whenuapai in West Auckland.

Horonuku is now in the process of undertaking a series of structural and systems tests over the next few weeks.

“It is our job over the next month or so, to get as much useful testing as we possibly can done here in Auckland, before we put Horonuku on a ship to Lake Gairdner to continue testing and tuning on the salt lake so we are ready to roll when a weather window comes along,” said Ashby.

“We hope that today’s blessing and naming of Horonuku with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the team and supporters of the land speed project will help us to align those stars for our eventual record attempt.”

The design of Horonuku is for out and out speed, the target is the World Wind powered Land speed record currently held by Britain’s Richard Jenkins, whose Greenbird land yacht hit 202.9 km/h in 2009.

etnz.com