Better Tomorrow Challenges

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Tightrope Walking: First duo to walk a tightrope stretched between the smokestacks of two sister

(identical) cruiseships. The height of the cruiseship smokestacks must be at least 200 feet from the surface of the ocean and the tightrope must be secured to the top of the smokestacks. The minimum distance between the cruiseships must be at least a half mile. The cruiseships must maintain a cruising speed of 15 knots during the entire stunt. By whatever means they can figure out, the tightrope-walking duo must start at opposite ends of the tightrope, pass each other at the midway point, and finish on the opposite end. If one of them falls, the stunt is counted as a failure. To win this challenge and all the future challenges below, the tightrope walkers MUST do the stunt with a safety line trailing behind them.

[Tightrope walking, as it is currently done, is old hat. A yawner. This challenge and the ones below are to make tightrope walking exciting again. They are also MAJOR engineering challenges as they have to figure out how to keep the tightrope taunt at all times during the stunt. And then there is the added difficulty of passing each other at the midway point. Not only that but they must also figure out some way for their safety lines to be able to pass each other as well.]

Future Challenges:

1) Train cars separated by twenty train cars while the train is going at least 45 miles per hour on a long stretch of straight railroad tracks.

2) Tour buses with ten glass-roof tour buses full of spectators convoying between them and all of them traveling at 65 miles per hour down a straight stretch of highway.

3) Two passenger jumbo airline jets (747 or Airbus 380) traveling at least 200 miles per hour and separated from each other by at least 100 feet. The tightrope cable connected to the wingtips of the two planes. The tight-roping duo must NOT have safety lines attached to the tightrope but instead wear parachutes. Each jet must at least have passengers in each window seat that has a view of the stunt.

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