The car officially broke the sound barrier one day before the 50th
anniversary, and set the first supersonic world land speed a few days
later. The car is black in colour. One recurrent problem was with the
computers, can't quite recall the manufacturer, but TI flew out a
replacement CPU.
Driver Andy Green arrived home last Saturday to ... nothing. BBC's
Radio 4 announced that Andy 'Brown' had broken the sound barrier. When
the attempt was first announced BBCs 'Tomorrow's World' said that
Richard Noble was going to attempt to 'regain' the land speed record.
Heroes unknown (relatively) in their own country.
It was estimated that the car could reach speeds as high as 850 mph, but
in fact 766 seems to be about its maximum, the amount of energy going
down into the ground is much higher than expected, they say.
The team have some fantastic pictures of the shockwave visible in the
desert dust, radiating out from the nose of the car. The shockwave
tries to radiate out in a cone, but because of the effect of the ground,
reduces at this level as it gets further away from the car. The sonic
boom can hardly be heard at ground level - if TV film sound is anything
to go by - but is much greater up in the hills and in the air.
Apparently the pilot taking official pictures above the car was nearly
blown out of his microlight.
Richard Noble has been unstinting in his thanks for the support received
from local people and specialist companies in the USA. Craig Breedlove
gave up his 'slot' on the desert so ThrustSSC could make a third run to
attempt to capture the record on the day the car broke the sound
barrier, it was that third run that was just 1 minute out of time.
Although a very serious business there were still some light-hearted
moments. Occasionally Andy Green would drive the car back to the pits
to save time, on one occasion he 'raced' the Jaguar Firechase car back
at speeds of 170mph. ThrustSSC won by a long pointy nose.
PaulH.
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