Well, quite frankly, we could do without another month like March! Whilst the project team are pushing ahead well and a very great deal is being achieved, from my perspective the money situation took an awful long time to improve. This meant that we had to slow production for two weeks at G Force just at a crucial time - and just when we are planned to accelerate it. This puts a huge stress on the Team - we are always having problems meeting our financial objectives and we are constantly having to revise plans to catch up.

In fact it is probably only because we are so ambitious that we believe we are doing badly - by ordinary standards I suspect we are doing well. We reached agreement with three cash sponsors this month, which included Permabond - the high technology adhesives company, Paris-Match the French illustrated magazine and BUPA the health care company. These are all very important deals for us: Permabond found us and Bill Lees started by providing us with the specialist adhesives for bonding the hoop structure on the engine nacelles and also the titanium skins to the rear fuselage. The latter is a very tough bonding application for there is considerable heat and acoustic vibration from the afterburners which the panels have to withstand. Ron and Gillian Tracey ran a major assessment on the panel vibration which completed with a full scale test panel being run in a Spey afterburner exhaust. The bonding stood up well and Permabond decided they wanted their name on the car - the first thing they did was to call a major meeting for all their staff which was held on March 14th. We spent two hours explaining the project and then took them to see the Thrust SSC. They are now planning a major industrial promotion and will be bringing their distributors and customers to see Thrust SSC in action in May.

I suspect the French are much better at these huge ground breaking industrial projects than the British (you have only to look at their track record!) and they understand what we are going through. I am very proud of the Paris-Match deal which now means that 4 million French will be able to follow the project month by month as it happens - and you will very soon see the difference as we start to introduce the French pages on this Web Site. I don't want to spoil their story - so please wait for their announcement.

If you had photographed the team three years ago and compared the image with us now, the difference would be very obvious. There is no doubt that the workload is really getting to everyone. Don't get me wrong, we are really enjoying the ceaseless battle - but it is taking its toll. I was in Gerlach, Nevada three days ago and the joke running round Bruno's bar was that we are now aging twice as fast as our American friends! The Brits are now all known as the greyheads!

The BUPA sponsorship is going to be very valuable to us - it includes the normal healthcare support for the team, at home and on site, but it also focuses on personal health support which includes full checkups and fitness plans. Frankly like the others in the past I have paid little attention to healthcare - we just concentrate on getting the job done, but the conversation in Bruno's Bar has made me really think! As the pressure on the team builds even more, I know we are going to be very glad of BUPA's help. Interestingly BUPA have an assessment scheme where they assess your health and then give you a BUPA age - the important thing is to keep your BUPA age younger than your real age!

On March 10th we had the project Open Day for the Mach 1 members - the last one at Fontwell. Over 600 applied and sadly we had to cut the numbers back to 450, which was all we could accommodate. The day was a huge success with all kinds of new contacts made and as usual great fun. The Mach I Club is one of the best project decisions we ever made and the Open Days make a really pleasant and fun change from the inexorable struggle!

The end of the month saw brother Andrew Noble and I on our way to the US to attend the crucial public meetings in Gerlach and Reno. The Bureau of Land Management is the Government organisation which is responsible for issuing the permit for Spirit of America and Thrust SSC to run en the Black Rock desert. No permit means no runs! The public meetings, known as Scoping Meetings, are held to table the proposal and take public soundings. They are taken very seriously and are an extremely good example of well-run democracy in action. Craig Breedlove attended with us, but the American Eagle people, who had just achieved a huge publicity coup, failed to show. We hope that they will be joining us on the Black Rock and Craig intends to renew the contact with them.

The meeting at Gerlach attracted around 60 audience and ran for 4 hours. The primary concern was from the other permitees that we would encroach on their activities - principally the incredible Aero-Pac amateur rocket people who plan to launch around 100 large rockets each day and now to make the first amateur space launch very shortly - and the Flaming Man Festival which is a huge 5,000 person party and involves the symbolic burning of a beautiful 4oft statue. Very quickly the various parties realised that we could all not only get along together with a bit of give and take but also actively help each other.

The Reno meeting was very much a rerun of the Gerlach meeting with around 70 attending - many of those having made the 100 mile journey from Gerlach to support the application.

At Reno we met our old adversary Charlie Watson from the Nevada Outdoor Lands Recreation Association who had opposed the Thrust 2 applications in 1992-3 - but this time he was in general support provided care was taken to ensure protection of the valuable surroundings.

The National Historic Trails Association were there to point out that 1996 was the 15Oth anniversary of the important Applegate-Larsen immigrant trail and they planned to run waggon trains along the route in commemoration. They were particularly keen to ensure that the participants are not exposed to thc 2Oth century and do not want to see dust trails or LSR signage on the desert from their route.

In fact the A-L trail runs a long way north of the proposed LSR track and there would be no conflict, unless the waggon train found the Northern end of the Black Rock desert too boggy and decided to cross the desert further South, in which case they would want to cross the LSR course at right angles and through the high speed section! Thrust SSC and a waggon train would make for some wonderful global PR!

Well the meetings were very well run, the subject was fully aired including all the difficult questions about supersonic booms - and the rest of the action is now with the BLM. They close the doors on public input from April 11th and then they plan to make the decision in early May. Frankly from our perspective, it seems to me that with a little give and take and an undertaking to help each other there is no reason why all the events cannot coexist and mutually benefit.

Before the meetings Andrew and I visited Craig Breedlove and the Spirit Team in Rio Vista. They had just completed their first engine runs in the car and had made 22,000 lbs of static thrust - the tests bad to be stopped when they discovered some minor intake duct problems - and when we got there the Spirit was in pieces. This typifies the LSR struggle - building an LSR car is not like building a piece of art - the vehicle has to work well - and no one is going to achieve that first go. Like Thrust SSC, SOA has been designed to be stripped down and reassembled in a very few hours - and that's how real LSR progress is made - with workshop pace being almost as important as track performance. By the time you read this they will have completed the next set of engine tests and will be into painting.

There is also a fine trucking dimension to all this. Breedlove has a huge Peterbilt truck rig being prepared which will carry the Spirit of America on a hoist inside the truck - with an rearward extending jib for picking up the car off the desert. Another of his sponsors is decorating 50 of their huge rigs with Spirit of America livery and graphics - which will generate huge interest on the highways across the US.

Plane Trucking holds our trucking rights and George Swindell has already bought the trailer which is being built by Tilt Techniek into an arrangement which gives us a ramp access off the desert as well as fitting in the Heavylift Antonov 124. Since Thrust SSC is 12ft wide and 54ft long all this is going to look mighty impressive.

I must admit that there sometimes when I find myself wishing that we had a main sponsor like Shell who are committed to funding Spirit of America on a stage payments basis. But on the other hand Thrust SSC exists by being fiercely independent and has the huge resource of 149 very determined sponsors. We are going to see which is the better arrangement as the pressure builds.

We were very well looked after by Craig, Marilyn and Alex Prosser and we much enjoyed seeing them all again and comparing the next chapter of struggles. Interestingly the stories are very similar and usually involve the sponsors that got away and technical opportunities - the technical troubles come later!

Our friends at Digital have now agreed to support us with a much higher level of technology input on the Web Site so you will start to see this becoming available as Jeremy Davey, Nick Chapman and Robin Richardson develop the site to the next stage. The Web Site access build is now very strong and consistently generating over 40,000 accesses/week with a gross of 775,000. Our Web Site appeal for help has been spectacularly effective - the team is building very fast and we are getting very high quality people.

Interestingly, whilst Breedlove started build in 1992 and we in June 1994 we are now just 2 months behind.

And at the end of April, we are leaving our good friends at G Force and moving Thrust SSC to our new airfield site. The close and incredibly valuable association with G Force will, I hope, be maintained right the way through to the end of the project - but now we have to push on to complete and run the car. I am not going to tell you where - that's for the next issue - but here's a clue - our new address is 'Q Shed'! Oh and if you feel like helping with the painting and decorating, please skip to the Help Wanted section.

Next month: The Move, The BLM decision, The First engine runs. Can we land another 3 cash sponsors? Is Breedlove going to be at Edwards? What about our desert trials?

More crises next month!

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