(theme song playing) ♪♪ - [Walt] Coming up on Mississippi Roads, it's planes, trains and automobiles.

We head to the Coast to catch a flight with Keesler's hurricane hunters.

We ride the rails with the resurrected Rock Island Railroad and break speed records with racecar driver George Poteet.

♪♪ Welcome to Mississippi Roads, I'm Walt Grayson.

And this week, we're all about planes, trains and automobiles.

Now, this airplane behind me here, this is a crop duster.

Crop dusters have proven themselves to be essential in large scale farming, particularly cotton farming.

And crop dusters cut their teeth in the Mississippi Delta back in the early years of the 20th century.

Crop dusting planes were proven to be most useful in farming in the Mississippi Delta.

Broad flat fields there.

Not a lot of trees, not a lot of power lines, so you don't have to worry about the terrain.

Now, the Delta is not the only place in the state that's conducive to improving aviation technology.

In our first story, we traveled down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to visit with the hurricane hunters at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.

We'll find out what new technology they're using to keep not only the Coast but the rest of the country safe from hurricanes.

♪♪ - Here at the 53rd Hurricane Hunters, our mission, our assigned mission, congressionally, is to find the center of a hurricane, Not necessarily doing research.

We're literally trying to find where wind speed zero exists inside of a hurricane.

And from there, as we continue to fly patterns around the hurricane during our reconnaissance missions, we can see how bad the weather is in those directions.

And my job, aside from the hurricane hunters, I'm a pilot.

Basically getting to and from the storm is our main mission the rest of the crew is basically relaxing.

Some of our flights could be up to 5 hours just to get to a storm.

Once we descend down to about 10,000 feet in a storm environment, our weather officer in the back, they basically become the mission commander.

They start telling us what they need inside the storm.

We continue to fly in and out of storms for hours, up to 6 hours.

- I'm an aerial reconnaissance weather officer for the United States Air Force Reserve.

And my position on the airplane involves collecting weather data in real time on the airplane and transmitting that data to the National Hurricane Center off the airplane and to the scientists at the National Hurricane Center.

Making sure the quality of the data is good, and also directing the crew once we're in the center of the hurricane to find that exact center of the storm in the middle of the swirling hurricane.

We want to collect the best data available for the hurricane center.

We want to make sure we hit those maximum speeds.

And we also want to make sure we get that lowest pressure and exact center.

Those three ingredients are key to the forecast models that help predict where that storm is going to be and how strong it's going to be five days from where we're flying that flight.

Once we start getting close to the storm about 100 miles out from the center, we'll pick a flight level that we'll fly through.

A major hurricane, that's about 10,000 feet.

And we'll hold that altitude all the way through the eyewall, the center, and then the outbound eyewall.

And at certain points in that flight path, we're releasing drop signs which collect weather data in the vertical all the way down to the ocean surface.

And so at the end points, the eyewall and the exact center, we're releasing these drop signs to gather more weather data.

A drop sign is a small tube that we release out of the bottom of the aircraft and it collects wind speed, pressure, temperature and humidity and also wind direction.

And basically, it's like a weather balloon, but kind of in reverse.

It's falling down to the ground instead of rising up.

There's a small radio transmitter and they're sending the data back to the airplane in real time.

So it's real feedback.

And about every 10 minutes, the plane itself is sending data back as well.

So we're packaging that up through a satellite communication and getting all that data to the National Hurricane Center pretty much real time.

- The navigator, obviously, is very involved in the flight planning and then in route to and from the storm, we chart the course, ensure the aircraft stays on course, but our main mission is inside the hurricane, we plot the course in and out of the storm.

I liken it to running a football.

You're going to get hit.

You just don't want to get hit too hard.

So I spend a lot of time on the radar scope and there's a certain art to it.

Determining where the bad parts are of the storm and to stay out, how best to avoid them.

What I'm looking for mainly are embedded thunderstorms.

Normally with a big storm, you'll see it from a long way out.

You'll see the eye, and you'll see the development around it.

So I'm looking at feeder bands that are coming off the storm and determining, okay, how's the storm moving?

Normally, it's going to be moving towards the west and spinning counter-clockwise.

So I'm looking in there.

Okay, how am I going to get through these feeder bands where these embedded storms and such?

How bad are they?

Can I see on the other side of them?

If I can see the other side, I can see through them.

That's when you have something embedded and there's black or blue behind it, my radar is not seeing through it.

That's probably not where I want to be.

It's actually, it's definitely not where I want to be.

- Normally your run ins are about 104 miles.

You know, nothing-- nothing big; some rain, just typical things, not a big deal, but as you get closer and closer if you fly in a daytime storm, it's darker, and darker, and darker Just like when you're driving your car on the interstate into a thunderstorm, and it gets dark.

When we get close to the eye wall, it's pretty emotional.

It can be maybe even terrifying, some people would say.

But what's amazing is you're flying.

You're flying, you're looking at the weather radar.

It's like, come on, just give me a little bit more.

And then, boom, if it's a daytime flight, you pop out in the middle and it could be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

It's all calm, and you fly around in that space.

And you can take a break.

- It can get a little sporty.

Normally, when a storm is building up or falling apart is when you have the most vertical development.

And so with the vertical development that's going to take the aircraft-- it can take the aircraft and bounce you up and down a little bit.

It can get a little tough.

What's ironic is, like when I flew Katrina, when a storm's really wrapped up and the winds are uniform and strong, you don't have that vertical development.

And it's actually a rather-- it can be a rather smooth ride.

When the pressure drops, the aircraft drops along with the pressure and then climbs out as the pressure increases.

So, for instance, with Katrina, we came out in the eye wall.

Pressure drops, you come down and then you start.

It's kind of like a roller coaster.

You come down like that, and then (roaring) you come back up back to about 10,000 feet where we normally fly in a big storm like that.

- The aircraft we fly here at Keesler is a WC-130J.

C-130 has been around since the 50's.

We fly the most current model.

Ours is up-to-date electronics, those kinds of things.

Some people ask, Hey, why not fly a jet versus a turbo prop propeller?

Biggest thing, if you fly a big old jet, we go through a lot of water.

People don't realize how much water is suspended airborne.

But we go through a lot.

We do suck air in for the jet engine to work, but it's a small amount.

Where if a big airliner flies through a huge thundercloud, it can actually flame out.

So ours, it's efficient, plus it's just a tank.

C-130s will land anywhere, in short fields It looks like a large airplane, but it's just real tough.

A tough aircraft with stubby wings, it's great.

It's a very strong, powerful aircraft.

The C-130 here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is an icon.

It's been flying here for a long time.

Keesler is very unique.

The runway, basically, goes from the Back Bay, literally one road from touching the Back Bay, all the way to the railroad tracks, just shy of the beach on the south side of the base.

So people get to be very close to C-130s here on the Coast flying over the beach and over the Back Bay.

You're only a couple of hundred feet making your approach.

- I'm a native of Port Gibson, Mississippi, which is up in the west central part of the state.

And it's a tremendous honor, not only to serve my fellow Mississippians here on the Gulf Coast, but honestly, the entire Coast of the entire United States, the Gulf and Atlantic Coast, to be able to provide the data that lets them know, hey, I need to get out of town, because as we've seen with Katrina, with Ivan and other storms, these can be deadly.

These can be very, very devastating.

And to be able to help these people make the determination to get out of harm's way is an absolutely terrific feeling.

It's really an honor is what it is to be able to do this for my fellow citizens.

For Mississippi and the rest of the country.

- In our next story, we ride the rails on the Rock Island Railroad.

That's a familiar name in the railroad world.

And it's got a new lease on life right here in Mississippi, thanks to the vision of Robert Riley and his dedicated crew.

Let's see how they put it back on track.

(train horn blares) - As a kid.

I grew up along the Illinois Central main line between Jackson, Mississippi and Canton, Mississippi.

So as a youngster at a very young age, I had interest in trains from seeing the trains go behind my childhood home.

I started out working on the railroad there at the age of 18, and have been doing that ever since.

- My husband came home one day and he we both had, you know, our day jobs with other companies.

And he came home one day and he said, "Well, you're not going to believe this," and threw a stack of papers on the table.

I said, "What is that?"

He said, "We're in the railroad business.

I just made an LLC," and that's what started it.

It's been a wild ride.

There is no typical workweek.

(laughs) - The name of the Rock Island Railroad is fairly famous in the railroad industry.

It goes back, way back into the 1800s.

Rock Island went into oblivion in March of 1980.

So the last day of March, March 31st, the trains all went to wherever they were going and stopped, and everyone went home.

And that was the end of it.

When we were looking at starting another railroad, we wanted to use something that had instantaneous recognition throughout the railroad world.

Everyone knew who the Rock Island was.

So we researched it and found that the name was available, the intellectual property was available, so we capitalized on it, and we filed on it, and here we are.

We made our first run under the Rock Island name in March of 2019.

We went from Clarksdale, Mississippi, to Swan Lake, Mississippi.

I guess that's really what it all set in to everybody that we're back.

- This locomotive behind me is a GP15 manufactured by EMD, Electric Motor Division of General Motors.

The V12 two-cycle diesel engine turns a generator to make electricity, diesel electric, and it produces 1500 horsepower.

It's one of the smaller engines that we have at The Rock Island at this time.

But for the purpose that we have it for here in Gulfport, it's ideal.

It's a little bit lighter than the other engines.

But it is a great engine and it does exactly what we need it to do here.

This particular section of rail was abandoned after a hurricane had damaged part of the track.

We had a wash out and we had a bridge that was damaged by debris that had floated up against the bridge.

It was abandoned, basically, by Class One Railroad and is not feasible to repair.

And we were able to come in, repair the bridge at a reasonable cost and we were able to come back in and just basically do a light rehab on the track, and began service.

Rail is a very economical way for someone to ship commodities.

We can haul approximately four truckloads of material on one car.

We service grain elevators, the building industry with sheetrock, lumber and also the industry that brings in asphalt paving materials and some food products.

- The customers that are here today that use it are very excited that we brought rail back as well as having rail has opened up other conversations for us to have with new business that wouldn't be here if we weren't able to talk about rail.

Robert's a great partner.

He loves the railroad.

It's hard to get in a conversation where he doesn't talk about trains and history.

I'm more of a jet guy.

But, you know, I like riding on the train a bit, too.

(train horn) - The Royal Street we acquired there to do charter trips with built for Louisville and Nashville in 1950.

Some of the trips that we would do with the Royal Street there include going to the car's original home of New Orleans, Louisiana.

We have an upcoming trip going from Chicago to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

The car is not limited to running that route.

You know, we would charter the car for pretty much anywhere Amtrak goes there for any individuals there wishing to experience, you know, train travel the way it was when the car was originally built.

We usually try to afford the passengers the experience there they would have had, say, a 1950 down to even the cuisine and whatnot served in the galley.

We actually have files from all the different railroad players, all the different fares and whatnot that were served in the dining cars, on the various railroads of that time period.

So that adds an interesting touch to the overall trip.

- I think today, travel is a little bit taken for granted, but it would be pretty nice to see young people get the chance to come look at this pullman car, come get a little load of the experience that people would have had in their grandparents' or great grandparents' generation when traveling was something you-- really a special occasion.

All you can do is look forward to it where I think today, travel is kind of an afterthought for a lot of folks.

But to look at this really kind of takes you back in time.

The cool thing about seeing Mississippi, when you pass by it, you see it from the perspective that you wouldn't if you were driving, which kind of means to me that it's sort of like sitting in somebody's back porch and it's sort of like really being there in real time.

You know, the train gives you the opportunity to be a witness to, I believe, a pace of life that's just right.

And if it's done the Southern way, I guess it's just done the right way.

- I used to have an old pickup truck.

It was just about like this, except mine was a '46.

I think this one's a '47.

These old post-World War Two vehicles, you can safely top them out at about 45 to 50 miles per hour.

But where were you going to be going in a hurry back then, anyway?

But if speed is your thing, then let's travel up to North Mississippi and then out to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with racecar driver and land speed record holder George Poteet.

George still isn't slowing down.

- I'm 73 years old.

I'll keep going to Bonneville as long as I can get up and get out there.

I've set 26 records out there.

Fastest 4-cylinder car in the world, to fastest smal-block car in the world, and the fastest LS motor in the world, the fastest big-block engine in the world.

We've had a lot of good things happen to us out there.

I was born in Itawamba County, over close to Fulton.

out in the country there by the Tom Bigbee River.

First car I purchased was a '61 Ford convertible.

I was still in high school when I bought it, so I still own one up here.

The same thing.

I've generally tended to collect cars that I read about and saw in a magazine and wished for when I was 15, 16 years old, back out in Itawamba County.

You couldn't afford cars like that where I came from.

Over the years, I've picked up cars one at a time that I dreamed about owning when I was 15 years old.

And basically everything I have is something I wished I had back in '65 and '66.

- As long as I can remember, he was obsessed with speed.

If it was a bicycle, if it was a red wagon, whatever it was, he always wanted to go faster.

- Bonneville is something I read about from the time I was eight, nine years old, and still do.

It's been over 25 years ago now when I first started my racing venture out there.

- Sometimes it doesn't turn out as well as others, but it would be really amazing to go as fast as he does.

It's hard to understand how fast 480 miles an hour is.

You really have to see it to believe it.

- We're racing on a five mile course from 0 to 5 mile to see how fast you can get a vehicle to go.

You're racing against a record that's in the book that you decide you want to go faster than that.

So you are basically competing against yourself to be able to get all the performance out of a vehicle that is gettable.

- He can set new records and he can be proud of himself.

He's just really fun.

I love him.

- I'm laying in the car at a 15 degree angle so I can't see the seatbelt thing.

So I have to have a person do all the buckling the seat belt.

You go through a checklist when you start the car of oil pressure, water temperature, intercooler temperature, the amps, how much fire you've got in your batteries be sure your parachute is unhooked for you to just pull them with the parachute.

The way we stop, we don't use brakes.

You get in the car and basically get buckled in by the guy.

They close the lid and push you off with a deisel truck.

Go from there.

The quarter mile marker goes by pretty fast but you really don't have a good feel for how fast you're going.

Once you get over 350 miles an hour, 400 miles an hour is all about the same.

It just goes by.

You wait till you hit the five mile marker and pull the parachute.

The car that we were running today is highly computerized.

They have computers to set everything on it that we used to set with a screwdriver and a wrench.

We run a V-8 engine, basically an engine that's in a Chevrolet truck right now.

Twin-turbos on them, which gives about 35 pounds of boost I've had a few mishaps.

Last year, on Saturday morning out there at 10:00, I'd already burnt my car down.

A piston caught on fire and burned all the wiring and ruined the engine.

And we rebuilt the engine out there on Sunday.

Got back in the car Sunday afternoon My computer guy rewired it from his motel room.

Made a wiring harness for it that burned, and put it in, and it was back running Monday morning.

- It's nerve-wracking to watch him, even though the run takes a little over 2 minutes from start to finish.

The most excited I get is when they say "Chutes out."

- [Announcer] The next car on the race course will be the 715 Speed Demon, AA Blown fuel streamliner is underway.

- Pretty much dominated by California people because they're the ones that started in 1948.

People from Mississippi, you don't see people from Mississippi out there racing, to start with.

To go out there and do what we've done, I mean, I've broken all the records.

Used to, you couldn't even run out there if you didn't belong to one of the California car clubs.

- [Announcer] Speed Demon 297.268 In the quarter, 357.941.

Mile three was 383.168.

Mile four was 438.626.

Mile five, 470.733.

Exit speed of 481.576.

Fastest piston powered record.

No qualifiers needed.

Fastest one ever.

That was something to see, folks.

- That's all the time we have for the show.

If you'd like information about anything you've seen, contact us at: Or like the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Facebook page.

And while you're at it, check out our Mississippi Roads Facebook page, too.

Until next time, I'm Walt Grayson.

I'll be seeing you on Mississippi Roads.

Hi, I'm Walt Grayson.

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