With the successes of Jordan2 behind them, the ThrustSSC team have been concentrating on their preparations for this autumn's head-to-head with the Spirit of America team on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. With the decision made to return home, a rather more orderly evacuation of the Jafr Desert was achieved than in 1996 - this time the only water chasing the team off was the thought of a much deserved swim in the sea at Aqaba!
A few items were dealt with first: photocalls of the car and equipment were conducted, as was a night barbecue at the Desert Pits - the celebrations lasted into the early hours. The next day everyone got stuck in in the intense heat to load the car onto its trailer and pack all the equipment for transit. The last item to leave the desert that night was the Pit Station - finding the now-familiar route off the desert in the dark proving relatively easy.
As many as the team as possible flew home over the next couple of days, including Mechanical Designer Glynne Bowsher who would start work immediately on the design of the new suspension brackets, and Richard Noble who faced the enormous task of raising the funds for the Black Rock campaign. Those who could do so took a much needed rest, but for others it was critical to return to their full-time jobs as soon as possible in order to conserve leave. The team members left behind had the task of preparing the equipment for the Antonov which was due into Al Jafr on the 20th of June. Needless to say, everyone was sad to leave behind the good friends they had made among the Jordanians - without the support of the Jordanian people, King Hussein, and Crown Prince Feisal, ThrustSSC would not be in such a good position for 1etting a new World Land Speed Record.
The Antonov arrived late in the morning of Saturday 21st June, and by the time it had been unloaded, Customs had been cleared, and the first load - ThrustSSC itself - driven to Farnborough, it was already late into the evening. The incoming team were relieved by those already in England, supplemented by the ever-ready Mach 1 Club members, and the work continued throughout Saturday night, Sunday and Sunday night to return the Pit Station, Merlo, spare engines, Supacats, Jaguar firechase, Paloustes, and crates of equipment to the project headquarters on the Defence Research Agency's base at Farnborough.
Work immediately started on ThrustSSC, stripping out the rear wheels and suspension ready for fabrication of the new brackets. Bodywork panels were also removed where the need had been found for additional strengthening against the intense vibration from the twin Spey jet engines, and the long, filthy task of cleaning the Jafr Desert dust from the car was begun.
The vast array of equipment also needed attention, and those team members not required for work on the car soon buckled down to ensuring that everything was ready for Black Rock. The Supacats needed checking and modifications making to the large tanks carrying the jet aviation fuel for ThrustSSC, the Pit Station required attention - as well as a huge unpacking job - while even small items like the Web Cameras needed cleaning and checking after the extreme conditions they had experienced in the Middle East.
My personal task was to get back online and updating this Web Site as soon as possible. All the computer equipment had to be unloaded, checked out, and set up again, while the satellite dish needed re-erecting and aligning with 'the bird'. Recovering the equipment and reinstalling it has taken most of the last week - interrupted as it was by the Sponsor's dinner and such mundane items as the huge amount of post-Jordan laundry! By lunchtime yesterday Matt Cole and I had put the massive 'meccano set' stand together and lifted the 6ft diameter dish into place.
Although the unbelievable rain we have been experiencing threatened to return, it held off long enough for the dish to be aligned. Before I got involved in satellites I imagined that this would be the proverbial 'needle a haystack job' - trying to point the dish at an invisible speck 25,000 miles away with an accuracy of one half of one degree both across (azimuth) and up-and-down (elevation). In reality it is a relatively easy job involving moving the dish slowly until the reading on a voltmeter is at a minimum. Sod's Law dictates, of course, that you can never find 'the bird' quickly when it's raining...
Next job was the Web Cameras - these are all back online using the satellite data link, and as well as the single camera looking at ThrustSSC from the rear that we had before Jordan, we've added one looking at the front of the car, while the third shows the rear-wheel bays where so much work is scheduled to take place.
By far the biggest task now facing the team is the fund-raising effort for Black Rock. No secret has been made of the fact that some £600,000 is required - a figure that will no doubt rise and fall slightly as the costs of individual items are nailed down. Such a sum must come from more than just sponsorship and merchandising, and the Mach 1 Club have been hard at work helping Richard Noble to invite the country's car clubs to visit, see - and even touch - ThrustSSC. There is no doubt that they will prove both popular and successful visits.
As I write this tonight there is a sense of excitement and optimism in the team. At the Press Conference in the Science Museum the other week, Andy Green described the feeling of confidence engendered by 'being 70% up Everest as your assault team is jogging past you' - he could not have described it better. The last 30% of this mountain may be the most difficult, but as she rest in P8.R Shed tonight, ThrustSSC's purposeful stance sums up the mood.
Black Rock - here we come!
 |
 |
 |
||
| Sponsored by | This site best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 | |||
 |
 |
 |
||