What really hit me hardest was the attitude of British industry when we were fighting to finance the 1997 record attempt. The car had been designed built and developed, the team had matured, most of the campaign battles had been fought and won - the entire act was together except for the money. But the big brave companies were not doing innovation in the 1990's and there were to be no big names to help us make the £600,000 we needed in the 60 days we had left. But, faced with the ultimate crisis, our system responded: the internet followers funded 250,000 galls of Jet A fuel at 30,000 gallons a day and the Daily Telegraph gave us a 4 page supplement which resulted in their readers sending in the rest of the funding.

The rest of the story is well known: Andy Green and the team doggedly fought it out day after day on the Black Rock Desert Nevada, finally making 5 audited supersonic passes to achieve the first ever supersonic FIA World Land Speed Record at Mach 1.02 763.035mph for the mile. The Ba-Boom supersonic bangs could be heard 40 miles away and the energy stripped the plastic sprinkler covers in the Gerlach school classrooms 15 miles away.

I did hope that the British Establishment would at long last recognise the tremendous and innovative engineering achieved by the ThrustSSC team, with a medal or two. Andy Green was given a well earned OBE and the rest of the team ignored. As a knowledgeable and experienced bystander told me 'My God, Richard you guys must have really upset someone!'

Time moves on and, the 1997 ThrustSSC record still stands, but it’s under threat from three teams with two starting development trials this year. World famous record breaker Steve Fossett has bought Craig Breedloves Spirit of America car and is into major reconstructive surgery. Fossett owns a hundred or so World Records, has an absolutely unique track record and is keen to add this one. The rebuilt car is targeted at 800mph and will start run development this year. Also challenging is the American Eagle team led by Ed Shadle who believes that the supersonic solution is much simpler than the complex

ThrustSSC approach. They have carefullyresearched the odds and believe that since the F104 Starfighter had supersonic performance at low level, then a wingless Starfighter on wheels should prove to be the winning solution. With 8 years of work behind them, they are preparing to run this summer.

Further away in time is the incredible Aussie Invader R rocket car being assembled by Rosco McGlashan. The Australian team have always had the disadvantage of operating from the smaller population and industrial engineering base in Australia but have achieved 600mph passes and are very well qualified to take on the challenge. The Australian Universities have provided the research and an 80,000lb thrust regeneratively cooled rocket combustion chamber has been acquired from Edwards AFB. Slowly but surely the experienced Rosco is putting the jigsaw together: the latest and smartest plan is to build the car in public on the roof of a Las Vegas casino, thus ensuring a steady throughput of millions of spectators and their dollars. It's a very clever and original idea.

So if the Land Speed record is a bit too way out for you, next time you settle in front of your screen just think of the tremendous innovative industrial challenges ahead: the aerospace industry has depended for far too long on the old inefficient turbofan technology and now needs to embrace open rotor which means complete airframe redesign and the motor industry needs to come to terms with over production of short life heavy cars and endorse lightweight long lasting structures. And the consumers are ready for change too !!

Follow the Land Speed Record and always chose innovation! It's a really good time to be an engineer.

Copyright
Richard Noble
March 2007

References
Richard@richard-noble.com
www.richard-noble.com
www.thrustssc.com
www.landspeed.com
www.aussieinvader.com