http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15122009/2/branson-offers-lotus-f1-boss-stewardess-challenge.html Even if they are going to make up the also-rans, I like where this season is going.
This guy has to be the cheapest bastard out there, all he talks about in other interviews is having the lowest budget.
Why aren't they pulling Team Force India's Vijay Malya(sp) into the mix? He does own Kingfisher Airlines.
Dick B : "Formula One is a sexy beast and we are going to try and make it a little bit sexier." LOL.. Get Flav back then..
It is funny how Branson was so concerned about the ecological philosophy of Formula 1 and KERS before signing with Brawn, and then once he had, he now says F1 is "a sexy beast" and he is title sponsor on a team likely not using KERS....
I love Branson! He is my hero. In everything he does. Whether it is setting new aviation records, challenging BA, starting space tourism or now running his own F1 team. The man is an absolute genius. One of a kind. I have the utmost respect for him. He is the stellar opposite from PeeWee.
I have his book from his early days read it ages ago, how he started and all that, he had faith in Mike Oldfield he approached (and was rejected by) many other established record labels. Some of the rejections were because they believed the piece to be unmarketable. Oldfield then played his demos to some of the Engineers at The Manor; they along with their boss, Richard Branson decided to give Oldfield a chance. Virgin Records released Oldfield's debut album Tubular Bells as its first album; hence the catalogue number V200 He made a fortune with this, also funny how he paid his staff he got them to work for nothing and was ... well paying them in other ways..if you see the book buy it, its a real good read will try to find the title for you.
Thanks. There is a good chance that at some point in the future I'll be handing over a ton of cash for a ride on his Spaceship 2. Did I mention that Rutan is another one of my heroes? Along with Steve Fossett. Local hero. RIP.
Cool!! got a dream go for it I say you only live once. Burt Rutan and Steve F both top guy's. I feel sick when I step on a boat so for me space travel probably not a good mix..
My stomach is not ironclad either. Although I do better than many folks. However for riding Spaceship 2 you won't need to have sea legs. Under the up and down G loads it is like a roller coaster. The 5 minutes of weighlessness might be queasy, but how sick can you get in 5 minutes? It took me about 20 minutes on the vomit comet and even then I kept my cookies down. Fact is that nobody actually knows whether they have "space legs" or not. Until they're there. NASA can't predict it and it is questionable whether the simulation/test the Russians do actually helps or not (I passed that test with flying colors). Only once in orbit will the signs of space sickness become visible. If you make it past the first 24 hours, you're good to go. If not, you will never adapt. But a 5 minute suborbital flight won't test that much. No worries. <uh, where were we? Ah yes, flight attendants>
I'd like to see the Branson "Lets see who can stay in the limelight longest for the least money" Challenge. Oprah, Tiger, and Paris take notes.
Tiger already lost: Whatever his net worth, divide it by 2 at this point. That's what he paid for his limelight...
Branson is very clever, but I am concerned regarding his promise to give $25 million to anybody that can rid this planet of CO2. Surely he realises that trees breathe CO2 and by doing so they produce O2 which we breathe, thus he is encouraging some mad scientist to turn this planet into something utterly uninhabitable by animals (and thus us)!! Just plant more trees man!! ... and stop clear felling forests, neatly solves the problem. You see the real cause is over population of the planet, ie. less trees because we need to build houses and farms. Getting rid of the CO2 means the existing trees have less to breathe and thus will produce less O2. Pete ps: Al Gore is just as stupid ... if man made CO2 is really the cause of GW, it is caused by over population and the effects of that as I said above.