Thrust SSC - Supersonic Race Update

Issue 158 Lead Article - 29th August 1997

'Go' or 'No-Go'?

by Jeremy Davey, ThrustSSC Webmaster and Satellite Communications Manager


An Antonov 124
(A HeavyLift-VolgaDnepr Antonov 124)

The situation just over a week ago was very difficult indeed - with only 37.94% of the required budget available for the Black Rock Campaign, the ThrustSSC Project had failed to find a fuel sponsor willing to help them fly the car and equipment to America in the huge Antonov 124. We would have to buy the fuel - all 250,000 US gallons of it.

"Why is the project in such difficulties?" people asked. "Surely the corporates would leap at such a marketing opportunity?" Sadly, in Britain of the late 1990's, this does not appear to be the case. In the States the Spirit of America team have no such problems - Ford and Goodyear having come on board to help out. But in the UK, we are finding that more and more of our funding is coming from the small companies and the individuals. Grass roots support has never been stronger with hundreds of people spending hard-earned cash with ThrustSSC, but in the boardroom there seems to be a strange stagnation - maybe cricket, tennis and opera are seen as a better bet?

There would be no point flying to America only to be unable to run the car for lack of money. A deadline was set - if the fuel money had not been raised by then, ThrustSSC's departure would have to be delayed. Antonov's are not available at a moment's notice and the next available slot would be 10 days later - eating 25% of the desert time and putting the supersonic attempt in jeopardy. At some point a decision would have to be made - would it be "Go" or "No-Go"?


The Black Rock Fuel Certificate image
(John Pittaway's watercolour off the Black Rock Fuel Certificate)

A massive appeal was launched, with the media alerted of the Project's difficulties. Small logo spaces on the side of the car were sold to Mach 1 Club members and sponsors. On the Internet side, we decided to find out just how supportive the readership were - after two years of giving them a first-class experience for nothing, we asked them to buy the fuel. In return we offered them the stunning Black Rock Fuel Certificate featuring a watercolour of Andy and ThrustSSC on the Black Rock Desert and produced especially for the promotion.

The response was nothing short of staggering. Requests to purchase the 10,000 lots of 25 gallons on offer flooded in - by email, by fax, by post, and by the online shop. Indeed, demand was so unexpectedly high that the database logs on the shop server overflowed within hours, taking the shop out of service. We just hadn't sized the shop for that level of use. I was at my real job at Sterling Software at the time - and my manager was in a teleconference. There was nothing for it but to explain my absence later - thank God I have such understanding employers! It took just one phone call to Mike Shaw at Microsoft and within minutes Lorraine at their technical support centre had diagnosed and fixed the problem. Interestingly, during the downtime, everyone persisted and sent in emails and faxes instead.

It was interesting too that many people didn't just buy a Fuel Lot - many bought more than one, and asked for the certificates to be sent to family or friends. Others brought the promotion to the attention of their colleagues. Orders came in from all over the world, including huge numbers from America - amply demonstrating that this project is about a World First, and not about nationalism. Many of our friends from the States declared that they were more interested in seeing a battle to the Sound Barrier than in the eventual victor.

In the meantime work in P8.R Shed at Farnborough pressed on in the assumption that we would go. All the non-operational equipment was moved by the Mach 1 Club to the Project's new base at X1 Shed - the move being necessitated by the DRA's redevelopment plan. X1 is an even better facility than either Q Shed or P8, with massive amounts of room - and it's right next to the flight-line.

By this morning we found that we had 92.15% of the fuel - and 65.99% of the overall budget. Above all we'd like to offer our grateful thanks to everybody who has contributed - we couldn't have done it without you. We have still got a long, long way to go, and the Black Rock Campaign will be characterised by the struggle to keep the funds coming in - but the decision is "Go"! We fly on Tuesday.





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