One had to wonder after all. First scheduled departure date for Jordan was Saturday May 3rd - then we had a steering problem on the Press Day that cost us the two weeks until the HeavyLift-VolgaDnepr Antonov was available again. Next it was Saturday 17th May, but the aircraft timings meant that it had to be the following Tuesday - the 20th.
The weekend before was spent packing equipment and loading it into crates and the Pit Station Trailer - by Monday there was only the final items to be packed. Meanwhile Andy Green (Driver), Jeremy Davey (Internet and Satellite Communications) and Richard Noble (Project Leader) held a Press Conference with Digital, Microsoft, NatWest and Trintech to announce the new fully-electronic trading facility on the Internet. Once the security audit is complete at the end of the month, the online store will include full end-to-end trading including online credit-card validation. This will be the first such Merchant Server installation in the UK - another first for ThrustSSC!
Universal Salvage were on hand with a tractor unit and two vehicle transporters to take the spare engines, Merlo, Supacats, Paloustes and Jaguar Firechase to Stansted. While they were loading up, the team's prayers were answered - two calls came through offering the loan of tractor units for Jordan. Despite their interest in the project, MAN had been unable to lend the team a unit in time because their entire stock had just been bought by the leasing company, CRR. The first call was from CRR, and one of their brand-new 18.403's delivered that morning was hastily 'logod up' for collection by ThrustSSC in the evening.
Jeremy Davey spent Monday night in the new MAN on the M25 transporting the Pit Station and crates of equipment to Stansted airport. Mach 1 Club stalwart Neal Fletcher left his desk in central London at a phone call's notice to keep Jeremy company through the long night. Still in his best suit, he was finally dropped off at Hatton Cross tube station in time to catch the train back to work. (Thanks, Neal - as always there was no question about being able to rely on you.)
Tuesday was always going to be a hard day, both for the overnight truckers and the team members loading the Antonov. Check-in at 1930hrs was planned - but at 1400 the phone rang. It was Pete Ross:
"The Antonov has a hydraulic problem - we aren't flying until Thursday."
Oh well - back to bed and catch up on the kip…
More lost sleep come Thursday - check-in was now 0600hrs, and very few team members live less than 2 hours driving from Stansted. Amazingly all 16 people made it, including Brian Palmer's crew who had been loading the Antonov since late the previous evening. With the advance party already in Jafr, and the last few people leaving England on Saturday, that made a contingent of 25 team members.
Finally everyone was on the bus to the freight side of the airfield where the 'plane waited. The last items were loaded - the ramps for unloading in Jordan and the deep-freezers with the food: most important! When all was ready the team embarked and quickly settled into celebrating Jerry Bliss' birthday. Six hours takes a lot of passing.
At 1040 the four huge engines spooled up (not as loud as the SSC, though!) and the aircraft accelerated down the runway towards Jordan. The party continued upstairs for another two hours before the early start and warm aircraft got the better of everyone...
Sleep was broken only by lunch - and at 1810hrs local time the Antonov touched down at Al Jafr to be greeted by familiar faces in the Jordanian contingent and the ThrustSSC advance party. The Americans were there too in the form of the US Marine Corps - not to check up on Craig Breedlove's competition, but to undertake exercises with the Jordanian military. They didn't seem to know much about the supersonic race, though.
At midnight the unloading was finally completed. All the equipment had been taken off the aircraft - much easier this time as it had been packed in Gurnet & Lyons crates and could be easily lifted out with the Merlo. The Pit Station was raided for the team's luggage and the ladies served supper. It would be another night with limited sleep though - breakfast was set for 0545hrs to beat the midday heat...
No time was lost on Friday morning. The Pit Station has only about 6 inches of ground clearance so first the sleeping policemen in Jafr village were bulldozed aside with the air base's 'Terex'. With that job done the Pit Station was taken onto the desert. Desert Pits was established some 50 yards North of the 1996 position and before long the satellite dish was being set up, computers put together and equipment unloaded. Once the MAN tractor unit had returned to the base, ThrustSSC was also on its way on its massive trailer.
The next two days were continual hard work in the high heat of the Jordanian summer - temperatures quickly reach the nineties in the morning, rising to such a point that work has to stop for some two hours at noon. Flies also continually pester the team despite liberal use of insect repellent and fly sprays. If those in the air-conditioned Pit Station had it easy, and the technicians in the Aireshelta were suffering, the Mach 1 Club and Team members on the 'fodding' team picking up the desert debris had a torrid time in the conditions. With the winter's research establishing that the small stones are simply crushed by the car's wheels, their job was at least made easier and quicker.
Now that virtually all the equipment has been set up, thoughts have turned to the first runs of ThrustSSC on this trip. Sufficient track has been cleared for a low-speed run to check out the car and test for any system leaks. This run is currently planned for early tomorrow morning.
Timing is critical on run days with the high temperatures. If ThrustSSC is run at too high an ambient temperature there is a risk of 'reheat buzz' with the attendant vibration badly damaging engines and car. To counter this and to maximise the number of runs possible in a day the plan is to run at first light - and on run days the whole timetable is moved forward by two hours. No longer is it full breakfast at 0600, but now a light breakfast at 0400. Lunch will be 1100, and dinner at 1800. The team are going to have to get used to getting up very early indeed.
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