Need For Speed

Posted December 20, 2007

If the Top Gun anthem “Danger Zone” gets your adrenaline pumping, grab your aviator sunglasses, strap into an F/A-18 C Hornet jet fighter simulator, and engage in a 600-mph air-to-air dogfight.

Velocity 17, a new virtual entertainment center in Maywood, caters to adrenaline junkies of all ages within its 100,000-square-foot facility. “It’s a clean adult playground,” says CEO Jerry Joseph of Bergen County. “Whether you’re a nine-year-old or a competitive corporate guy, you can get an adrenaline rush.”

Formula One designers from England created V-17’s speedway, a 1,600-foot spaghetti-style Grand Prix course where adults with a valid driver’s license can zip at up to 30 mph in electric European performance karts. “When you’re two inches off the ground, you feel like you’re going 60 miles per hour,” Joseph says. “This is not a Shore go-kart.”

The unnervingly realistic jet fighter simulator starts with a 45-minute briefing on air combat maneuvers, weapons delivery, and instrumentation panel interpretation. An “Air Boss” (roughly analogous to an air-traffic-controller) monitors missions and communicates with each of the eight cockpits from atop a “Combat Information Center” in the middle of the simulation room.

Alessandra Dizon, 17, Air Boss and aspiring Navy helicopter pilot from Hackensack, has been working at V-17 since it opened. “She can make you feel like Tom Cruise,” general manager Pedro Fernandas says.

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