Welcome once again to Mach 1 News the newsletter produced exclusively for you, the personal contributors who are helping to turn THRUST SSC from a concept that began life as a computer generated model into the real thing. The good news is that there is plenty to cover in this issue because the response to the project since its launch only four months ago has been truly enormous. If we wondered whether or not in this ever more demanding and sophisticated age, that their was sufficient public or company interest to support a record attempt, even one as dramatic as this, then we've certainly got our answer now - an emphatic Yes! And it's individual supporters like you who are playing a key role. Apart from contributing directly to the build programme (more on that later), your interest is persuading more and more companies to get involved, so already you deserve a big Thank You, you really are a crucial part of the team.
Talking of crucial contributions, we'd like to thank the TI Group for providing the launch issue of the newsletter and welcome Castrol as sponsoring producers of this issue of Mach 1 News. The TI Group were of course major backers of Thrust 2 and are providing valuable help this time, while Castrol are certainly no strangers to the Land Speed Record, having been involved since the days of Malcolm Campbell and Henry Segrave.
The format we've chosen for these newsletters is to pack them with as much progress information as possible, in addition to adding at least one more in-depth article about a particular aspect of the project, in order to help you learn more about record-breaking and see what we are doing together in context. So, straight on with the news and this issue's In-depth article which covers the development of the Spey engines that will power Thrust SSC.
IN THIS ISSUE
PROGRESS REPORT - DESIGN & ENGINEERINGThe goal of the Thrust SSC programme is simple :
To be the first car to break the Sound Barrier and set a supersonic Land Speed Record
The goal of the Mach 1 Club is equally simple:
To ensure that as many people as possible become personally involved and play their
own part in creating a piece of history
Back in June this year, the only parts of what will eventually be Thrust SSC that could be shown to the public were the four Rolls-Royce Spey engines, two of which are the Spey 205s that will be used on the record runs. The two slightly less powerful Spey 202s will be fitted for initial trials.
Further Computer Modelling -
The initial design ideas proposed by Richard Noble and Ron Ayers and developed further with the help of Glynne Bowsher have been proven to be sound by the combined use of advanced computer modelling techniques (computational fluid dynamics) and the analysis of data gathered from actual supersonic tests using a scale model fired by rockets along the test track operated by the Proof & Experimental Establishment at Pendine.
Closer examination of this latest data and further refinement of the overall body shape continues using computer time provided by the world leaders in supercomputers, Cray Research. High quality colour prints of the computer generated image show differences in pressure as a variety of colour changes. Although probably unnoticeable to the human eye, subtle but important changes have been made to the nose, the leading edge angle of the sections connecting the engine pods to the fuselage and the compound curvature of the engine nacelles.
More Rocket Tests Planned -
The scale model used for the data gathering tests at supersonic speeds is being modified according to these latest design changes and will be the subject of further test firings sometime in October 1994. In addition to the changes already mentioned, the most significant change concerns the shape of the cockpit canopy which now features a very smooth and rounded aspect in direct comparison to the hard-edged design shown in the original plans. As Ron Ayers put it recently, "the original cockpit canopy was simply drawn, this one has been designed properly." This will be of particular interest to all Mach 1 Club members as you will read elsewhere in this newsletter.
John Ackroyd and Andy Day Join The Design Team -
While Ron has been busy on the external shape of the car, Glynne Bowsher has been hard at work producing the definitive plans for the tubular steel central chassis for the fuselage of the car. Many of you who were around in the days of Thrust 2 will be delighted to learn that the designer of that car, John Ackroyd, was unable to resist the temptation to get involved and has joined Glynne on this vitally important work. For the last ten years, much of John's time has been taken up with record-breaking transatlantic and transpacific balloon projects for the likes of Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand. In fact, he's back in his second home of Reno, Nevada right now completing six weeks work on the capsule of a balloon making an attempt to fly non-stop around the world, but will rejoin the Thrust SSC team when that's finished.
Joining the team as systems manager is RAF Engineering Officer Flight Lieutenant Andrew Day. Andrew served on a Tornado squadron during the Gulf crisis and is currently working on guided weapon evaluation for the Ministry of Defence. Andrew joined the project through his association with the RAF Motor Sports Association and will be responsible for integrating different groups of components on Thrust SSC ensuring that, for example, the electrical, braking and fire suppression systems are compatible with each other.
Chassis Design Developed Further -
Although they still have their place, drawing boards and pencils
have long since been superseded by computers for serious design
work in the aerospace and motor racing industries. The chassis
design for Thrust SSC has also benefited from this approach,
having been generated on an IBM mainframe using a software package
called CADam.
Thanks to the generosity of Toshiba Information Systems and software company Altium (since renamed Microcadam), changes felt necessary by Glynne and John have been completed in record time and made available to those building the chassis in an equally speedy fashion. Proving just how much the computer industry has developed in recent years, Toshiba Notebook computers loaded with Microcadam's software have been downloaded with the data from the IBM mainframe and worked on concurrently in three separate locations. The final destination for the completed plans is G Force Precision Engineering where the car is being built.
Chassis Build Well Advanced -
A delay in the project of almost four weeks made necessary by the design changes has now been almost fully recovered, thanks to the efforts of all those at G Force, Fontwell, West Sussex, who are hard at work days and evenings, if not yet nights! The company are no strangers to high-tech motor sport engineering work, since this is what they do for a whole host of well-known Formula 1 and Indycar teams. In fact, they started life as the UK operation of Chip Ganassi Racing in the days when they built their own cars rather than buying them from Lola. Incidentally, Director James Morton was a co-founder of the ARV light aircraft project along with Richard Noble prior to setting up G Force.
The specially developed facility at Fontwell includes a 120 square metre assembly room, drawing office and stores. The assembly area itself has been designed in conjunction with the BBC's Tomorrow's World production team as a studio, so that the build programme can be regularly filmed in situ, as it happens. Thrust SSC is taking shape in the middle of the assembly area with teams working on either side, these areas being fitted with a range of very high quality Lista benches that fit in perfectly with the high-tech profile of the whole project. The T45 steel tubing delivered by TI Group shortly after the project launch is no longer stacked in the corner, but amazingly now forms a chassis that is about 70% complete.
Engine Nacelle Design Confirmed -
Now that the final shape has been confirmed using the CFD data, the plans for the construction of the nacelles have been finalised with Shorts of Belfast. First thoughts were of a complete carbon-fibre, multi-layer construction almost identical to that used on modern airliners, but it quickly became evident that a much simpler approach would be just as effective with the added benefits of lower weight, lower cost and simplicity of construction and maintenance. The revised design is now a combination of stressed aluminium and carbon-fibre with most of the latter being concentrated on the critical areas around the intakes for the Speys and the sections that join the nacelles to the fuselage.
Spey Engine Tested For The First Time -
The Directorate of Test and Evaluation Land Systems has already
provided much help to Thrust SSC by making available its
rocket sled facilities at Pendine Sands. In mid-July on a bright
sunny morning, activity moved to the Directorate's Aero-Engine
Trials facility at Shoeburyness, and instead of testing models,
one of the Speys was wheeled out for full power running. Having
manufacturer's calculations for power outputs is one thing, but
there is no substitute for hard and fast data collected from the
actual engines being used, and this facility is ideal, having
been used by the RAF to test Speys after rebuilds. Although the
Spey is no longer in widespread RAF use, the facility retains
a number of them, offering among other things valuable research
into infra-red emission, noise control, reheat exhaust plume,
engine health monitoring and new nozzle technology. The use of
Speys tied down in static rigs to drive these programmes meant
that it was the ideal facility for Thrust SSC to use since
all the instrumentation was purpose built to suit. How lucky can
you get?
In front of about forty journalists and TV crews, the engine was slowly wound-up until it was running nicely. As expected at low speeds, the test equipment collected data showing that the engine was sound, so bit by bit it was throttled up until it was at full power and ready for reheat. Now if you've been to air shows and seen fighters turning on the afterburner for a fast climb, then you will have been seriously impressed. Somebody doing it while the engine is on the ground - albeit firmly tethered - while you are trying to film the whole thing is something else again. Its something that you not so much hear, as feel. When the reheat came in with a bang, an enormous flame complete with distinctive dancing diamonds shot out of the tailpipe threatening to consume all in its path, especially those trying to film from behind. The technicians in the control room who are used to this sort of thing enjoyed themselves no end as miscellaneous journalists dropped cameras and notepads while moving fast in the general direction of away.
So what did it all prove? Well, apart from impressing the hell out of those who witnessed it, much more importantly, it showed that the engine was in fine fettle and the team now has a known power output. All of which means that one more theoretical assumption in the calculations has been replaced with proven fact and the project has taken another major step forward.
PROGRESS REPORT - MEDIA & PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mach 1 Club -
Before we start, one vital piece of information that you need to know is a slight change to the address for the club. Thanks to the vagaries of the Post Office rules on the use of collection boxes, they've now insisted that the address must be changed to Hampton rather than Twickenham, which covers the Hampton postal area anyway! Confused? - me too. The revised address is as follows:
Mach 1 Club, PO Box 77, Hampton, Middx, TW12 2XN, England
Despite a concentration on setting up the processes to run the club before pushing all-out on a recruitment campaign, the excellent press and TV coverage resulted in over one thousand enquiries in no time at all. I'm delighted that you are one of those who decided to pursue your enquiry and become a member of the extended Thrust SSC team.
I'm also delighted to be able to tell you that as promised, a proportion of your membership fee is being used to fund named components on the car, and that the first component has been chosen - the revised cockpit canopy already mentioned earlier in the Engineering Update. When you see it on the completed car, be proud to know that you helped provide it.
Thrust SSC On Television Again -
Following their initial coverage on the highly popular Tomorrow's World science and technology programme, the BBC have been hard at work filming the chassis build at Fontwell and the first engine tests at Shoeburyness for showing sometime in mid to late October. Make sure you don't miss it! By the way, the poster that many of you bought from the BBC has now sold over 10,000 copies with orders still coming in.
The driver selection process is proving to be a fascinating aspect of the project and not to be outdone by Tomorrow's World, that other well-known popular science programme, QED, are filming the whole process and will show the results as a forty minute documentary either later this year, or early next year. And that's not all. At least four other documentary proposals are being reviewed by the team while interest is still high from around the world to show the actual attempts live, as they happen.
Video Newsreels -
The well-respected company, Marcom Presentations, were selected to help present the press launch and cover all subsequent activities as the project continues. They now have a stock of material that includes, the press launch, the model testing at Pendine, the engine tests at Shoeburyness, the driver selection process and the build programme. They will also be filming during the Motor Show at the NEC and will be using all this material in conjunction with sponsors material to provide specially tailored video diary updates for sponsors to use with their employees and customers. What this means of course, is that there will be a complete video record of Thrust SSC that we hope to be able to make available to club members later on.
The Daily Mail Motor Show, NEC Birmingham -
The Motor Show is an absolute must for anybody interested in motoring and this year the organisers predict an overall attendance of 750,000. Like you, a big percentage of those visitors will head for the central exhibit, which is sponsored by The Daily Mail and has motoring in the year 2000 as its theme. Appropriately, we are right alongside this central exhibit on a stand specially designed for us by Zemla Associates, whose credits include stands for many of the world's major motor manufacturers.
Rather than disrupt the build programme by moving the partially complete chassis for display, you can see a superb full-size mock-up of Thrust SSC built by Geoff Luff, who along with his team produce special-effects props for film and television companies. One of the actual Spey engines to be used is fitted into the cutaway engine nacelle giving you a detailed view of what the finished car will look like.
But this is not a passive exhibit. Emphasising yet again the high-tech approach to the project, PictureTel have provided 'live' video-conferencing facilities so you can actually see the work at G Force underway and ask any questions that you have directly to those building the car.
Thrust SSC Collector's Items -
I'm sure that most of you reading this will remember the Land Speed Record promotion run by Kellogg's Corn Flakes last year, but did you know that they distributed over one million models of the four LSR cars selected by them to be produced by Lledo Models? Naturally, Thrust 2 was featured on the box front and since the project launch there have been a flood of enquiries asking if Lledo will follow up on this by producing a model of Thrust SSC to update your collections. The answer to that one is - Yes! They have finished the prototypes and are hard at work getting production set-up right now. Visitors to the Motor Show can buy a special presentation box with a model of Thrust 2 and a voucher that you send off to Lledo to reserve your Thrust SSC model. This guarantees supply of a model that will be every bit as popular as its predecessor.
Other items that are bound to be highly-sought after are the very distinctive club stickers, membership cards and T-Shirts specially designed for us by John and Marc Pittaway of Moving Images. John is an artist with a passion for the Land Speed Record and it is he who generated the artwork of Thrust SSC used on Mach 1 Club merchandise and stationery.. Not to be outdone, his son Marc is equally adept in the art of computer generated design and used his father's work as the basis of the designs for such things as the stickers and membership cards.
UPDATE ON DRIVER SELECTION PROCESS
Following the announcement at the press launch that the Thrust SSC team were looking for a driver, just about all the daily and Sunday papers carried features on the project, features that were quickly seized upon by would-be supersonic car drivers. Without any positive efforts at all, the team suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of over thirty letters, and in some cases very detailed CVs, from a variety of applicants. As you might expect these ranged from those with little experience through to existing racers of high powered machinery and test pilots.
It quickly became apparent that a great many were of an extremely high calibre and so, after some careful checks, sixteen were selected for further detailed consideration. Strangely enough, the high standard also meant that time pressures were relaxed somewhat since it became clear that whoever was chosen would already possess most of the mental and physical attributes deemed necessary. Much effort is being put into the development of a selection programme to sort out just who that lucky person will be.
We are most fortunate to be joined by the DRA (Centre for Human Sciences) at Farnborough in this selection process, which is already well underway. Simple interviews are not enough in this situation, so the programme is lengthy and exhaustive, featuring a whole range of tests and examinations. While mental and physical capabilities are a must, it is also vital that the driver is able to work well as part of this small, tight-knit team. Obviously, those from a background in military aviation must have a distinct advantage since they will already be in excellent physical shape and well used to dealing with high pressure situations, but until the choice is made nobody knows for sure.
Of one thing you can be sure, the person chosen will be the possessor of large amounts of 'The Right Stuff", a phrase first applied to Chuck Yeager and his fellow test pilots at the dawn of the supersonic age. In one sense the driver of Thrust SSC will simply be the latest name to claim the honour of being The Fastest Man On Earth, but we all know that the person who follows in Yeager's footsteps will, like him, claim a very special place in history.
IN DEPTH - The Rolls-Royce Spey Engine
When the Rolls-Royce Spey was chosen for Thrust SSC, it was vital to find experienced personnel to join the team. John Rowles, Greg Tallet and Gordon Bruce fit the bill perfectly. This highly qualified group are led by John Rowles for their work on Thrust SSC.
The heart of any record-breaker is the engine, or in the case of Thrust SSC, the engines. In common with most of its predecessors, it will draw on huge amounts of power generated by power plants designed initially for aviation use. Every now and again somebody attempts to take the LSR by designing a purpose built engine, or a super-lightweight car with relatively low power, but these projects are few and far between. If you want to get serious about record-breaking, your car has to be powered by a big, powerful ex-military jet - But which one?
A specification issued by British European Airways (BEA) to De Havilland to build a three engined civil airliner in the late 'Fifties is unlikely beginning for the Spey power plants that will be used in Thrust SSC. Specification DH121 called for a short haul aircraft with three engines grouped in the tail, and in which just over a hundred passengers could be transported for a range of 2,000 miles. The engine selected was the Rolls-Royce RB141, later christened the Medway. Designed by a team led by AA Griffiths and owing very little to earlier designs, the Medway gave 13,790lbs of thrust in its initial form, with predictions of up to 30,000lb in full afterburner format. Things were looking promising when BEA changed the specification decreeing a smaller payload and shorter range. Although they suspended the programme, Rolls-Royce - having funded five complete engines of their own - reutilised many of the components on another engine that was effectively a slimmed down version of this highly promising design.
As it turned out, this proved to be a blessing in disguise because the resulting RB163, or Spey, proved to be exactly what was needed for a whole range of military and civil aircraft and it began carving quite a niche for itself by being fitted to everything from the McDonnell Douglas Phantoms used by the Royal Navy and RAF, through to the BAC 111 medium haul jet, Vought A-7's used on US carriers, Gulfstreams, Nimrods and even the Chinese B-7 all-weather attack fighter. Beyond that, it was also used on the ground for power generation and as the main motive power for Royal Navy warships. Quite an engine - but how come it was so successful? To understand that, and the reasons why it was chosen for Thrust SSC, a quick trip through jet-engine history is required.
In its simplest form, a jet engine is a pipe through which air is forced and into which fuel is pumped along with a spark to make the whole thing go bang! The resulting hot air expands rapidly and squirts out of the back end pushing the jet - and the aircraft to which it is attached - forwards. A cone shaped pipe and forward motion makes sure that the fresh supply of air entering the front of this simple jet is compressed enough to continue this controlled explosion, and it was exactly this type of cheap and cheerful ram-jet that powered the notorious V-1 'doodlebug' so successfully during WWII. The trouble with simple ram-jets is that they need forward motion to continue gulping air and there is no throttling control to adjust the power - it's all or nothing!
A handful of people, but most notably Frank Whittle in the UK, solved this problem by fitting a centrifugal compressor ahead of the jet pipe. Looking somewhat like a beefier version of the paddle seen in a top-loading washing machine, this impeller spun around forcing air into a series of combustion chambers surrounding the core of the engine, where fuel was injected and the whole explosive charge made to go bang by sparking plugs. The hot air rushed out into the jet-pipe in which was installed a multi-bladed turbine wheel mounted on a central shaft. The hot air turned the turbine and was in turn ejected out of the back of the jet pipe providing thrust. But, the turbine blades also drove the shaft connected to the centrifugal compressor which compressed the air in the first place - brilliant!
If he'd only known it at the time, A A Griffiths who was then working at the Air Ministry Laboratory already held the key to the next stage of jet-engine development, but so wrapped up was he in his own technically sound but horrendously complex designs, that not only did he pour scorn on Whittle's ideas, but he also failed to see how his own could have improved the basic turbo-jet concept.
Griffiths had been working on axial flow turbines in which the place of Whittle's centrifugal impeller had been taken by a whole series of blades mounted longitudinally on a central shaft. The blades were of varying sizes so that air sucked in at the front was compressed in stages as it passed along the length of the engine. Again the compressed air was forced into combustion chambers, the resulting hot air driving high pressure turbine blades. The crucial difference was that in the Griffiths designs, the turbine not only drove the axial compressor but also a conventional propeller. Very little thought at all was given to the possibilities of pure jet thrust. But others did, including Whittle himself, and before long the multi-stage axial compressor had soon replaced the centrifugal compressor, while at the back end, the simple single stage turbine had also been replaced by multi-stage affairs. What this did was to greatly increase the power output by forcing more air through the engine in order to burn fuel at a faster rate. Before long, the axial jet had replaced the simple centrifugal turbojet as the preferred power plant for performance aircraft.
The next major advance came when it was realised that not all the compressed air needed to be passed through the combustion chamber. In fact, if some of the 'fanned' air was extracted and passed through an annular duct surrounding the hot core of the engine, this 'bypassed' air could be blasted out of the back providing thrust just like the hot air. So in effect, the hot turbine was producing its own thrust and driving a large fan at the front which acted a bit like a ducted propeller. The engineering advantages are much greater thrust with less noise for the same fuel consumption. Soon, Bypass turbofans were de rigeur with performance being related to the bypass ratio achieved - that is the amount of air bypassed compared to the amount of air passed through the combustion chambers.
The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle emerged when it was realised that by extending the tailpipe and putting a spark in it along with a separate fuel supply, additional thrust could be produced by the process of 'afterburning'. Bung one of those on the back end of a big, meaty bypass turbofan and you have something that will blow down trees and empty your friendly local petrol station in no time at all! All of which, brings us right back to the Spey 205s that will be fitted to Thrust SSC.
The trusty Rolls-Royce Avon used in Thrust 2 was a turbojet, rather than a turbofan and clearly not powerful enough to get the job done this time, so contacts in the aircraft industry and the RAF were canvassed for their views. The criteria were: availability, affordability, sufficient power, ruggedness and reliability. Like McLaren with their rival project, initial thoughts centred on the RB199 as used in the Tornado. It's an impressive engine that compared to the Spey is smaller, lighter and more sophisticated while giving roughly the same power. As an example, the standard Spey 202 has a thrust to weight ratio of 5 compared to 7 for the RB199. But closer checks against the criteria mentioned revealed some potential problems. For a start, the electro-mechanical controls are all computer driven which would necessitate complex and expensive re-programming for ground level operations - no problem for McLaren with their F1 experience but just one more potential problem waiting to happen for those with less experience while running on a desert thousands of miles from home. Being smaller, the RB199 is also engineered to much closer tolerances, including finely drilled cooling ducts running within the turbine blades. What would happen if the engine ingested dust from the desert surface and blocked those cooling passages. Maybe it wouldn't be a problem, but then again.....?
And then somebody suggested the Spey. 'Oh God! - not the Spey!' was Richard Noble's immediate response, but things got better when it was pointed out that a final development of the afterburning, bypass turbofan Spey fitted to Phantoms had been developed with single crystal turbine blades that allowed either greater power or longer life - guess which one the Thrust SSC team were interested in? Although the programme did not go into production, fortuitously some of the people who'd worked on it were still around. Not only that, but they also knew the whereabouts of two of only twelve engines to be built in this format and since the need for them had long since gone away, Thrust SSC soon found itself the proud owner of two 25,00lbs thrust Spey 205 engines still in Rolls-Royce wrappings, plus a couple of 202's for shakedown runs and systems checks.
The Spey engine is an axial flow, by-pass, turbo jet engine with reheat incorporating two compressors driven by separate turbines through coaxial shafts. In the Spey the air delivered by the low pressure compressor is divided into two flows; one passes through the high pressure compressor, the combustion section and turbines and the other passes through an external duct to by-pass these sections. Both flows join together again in the exhaust mixer and exit via the jet pipe. This arrangement allows higher combustion temperatures than in the pure jet engine and the thermal efficiency is, therefore, higher, the reduced exit velocity of the gases increasing propulsive efficiency. This combination of increased thermal and propulsive efficiency improves the specific fuel consumption and so the overall efficiency of the engine. In the turbines most of the energy in the gas stream from the combustion section is converted into mechanical work and used to drive the compressors and accessories. The energy remaining in the gas after its passage through the turbines provides thrust by reaction. The reheat system provides a considerable increase in thrust by adding more fuel to the mixture of by-pass air and main engine air in the jet pipe and igniting it, the resultant combustion producing an increase in thrust as great as 200%.
During the forward motion of the car, the thrust generated by the engines is equal and opposite to the increase in the momentum imparted to the air passing through the engines. The difference between the jet velocity and the car's speed becomes smaller as the car's speed increases. Due to 'ram effect' at the air inlet, the airflow through the engine increases with the car's speed as does the thrust.
Although two of our engines are in standard component form, we also possess two other Spey engines designated Mk 205 which were for future development. These have super polished compressor blades, modified combustion chambers and single crystal turbine blades, externally no different to Mk 202s. These engines were designed for longer life by reducing the running temperature although in the case of the project we can use this design facility to increase the turbine operating temperatures and produce far greater thrust, from a standard 21400 lbs thrust to just short of 25000 lbs thrust per engine.
Thrust SSC's engines and associated systems are the responsibility of two serving technicians in the Royal Air Force, Sgt John Rowles and Cpl Greg Tallet, both of whom have been involved with the project since its initial conception in 1992. Richard approached the RAF at RAF Wattisham, Home of the Phantom, to assess the practicality of using Spey engines in a land speed record attempt. John, Engine Team Manager at that time, was asked to assist in supplying information and to assemble a list of requirements in line with the project. A few months later Richard formally requested that the pair of them could become personally and actively involved in the project. Since that date both John and Greg have been involved with purchasing 4 engines, testing 2 of them, making 2 Tomorrow's World programmes, loading and unloading the engines for the press release last June. Greg, who is currently stationed at RAF St Athan in South Wales and John, who is currently stationed at RAF Swanton Morley in Norfolk, are allowed to take part in the project providing that it does not interfere with their service duties and take up service time.
Hard work, and a little luck, means that the team now have the motive power to get the job done and one that fits all their design criteria. If you're lucky enough to be there, you may get to witness the Speys in all their glory at first hand, since part of the shakedown schedule for next year will include some public displays at airshows. Make sure you hold on to anything likely to blow away though!
COMPETITION RESULT FOR SIGNED POSTER
Congratulations to all those of you who entered our competition on the Mach 1 Club membership form and correctly identified John Derry and the DH108 'Swallow' as the first British pilot/aircraft combination to break the Sound Barrier. A number of you were very specific about the answer giving details of the date, conditions and the registration number of the aircraft. Impressive stuff. A fair number thought that Neville Duke and the Hawker Hunter was the correct answer, but we particularly liked the enterprising soul who suggested comic book hero Dan Dare!
Derry achieved his record on 9 September 1948 in a dive from 30,000 feet having already set a 100km closed circuit record of 605.23mph earlier in the year . Three DH108s were built using as their basis the stumpy fuselage from the Vampire but shorn of wings, twin-booms and tail and fitted instead with swept wings and a 3,750lb thrust Goblin 4 engine. Although primarily designed for research into tail-less swept wing designs, its performance was quickly on a par with the existing airspeed record of 616mph, hence the decision to use it for publicity purposes. Sadly, their stability was no match for their speed and all three crashed, killing the test pilots.
Now the bit you've all been waiting for. The lucky winner whose name was pulled out of the hat by Richard Noble is:
Mr C Moorcroft from Solihull, West Midlands.
The prize is a framed print of the Michael Turner painting of Thrust SSC signed by team members which will be presented by Richard Noble at the Motor Show in October. Well done Mr Moorcroft, I'm sure it will find pride of place on an appropriate wall somewhere.
ISSUE TWO COMPETITION - (sorry, competition now closed)
Calling all junior Mach 1 Club members
In keeping with our goal of setting competitions for all ages and levels of knowledge of record-breaking, this issue's competition is for those up to age 7 and those from ages 8-12 inclusive.
A quick glance through any book tracing the history of the Land Speed Record shows that designs have often been weird and wonderful. But do you think that you could do better? I know I thought that I could when I was at school. Every scrap of paper or cover of an exercise book seemed to be decorated with my ideas of what fast cars should look like!
So, your competition is to design a Land Speed Record car of your own. Not only do we want you to send us a drawing of your design but, we also want you to tell us something about it. For instance, how many wheels has it got, where does the driver sit, what speed do you think it will do, what type of engine has it got. Finally, we'd like you to tell us what name you've chosen for your car.
All the entries will be checked by one of Thrust SSC's designers, who will then pick their winner. The prize is a report on the winning entry written by the Thrust design team and an appropriate book on the subject. OK, out with those pencils, rulers and paints! We need to know who the budding engineers are out there.
The closing date is December 1994.
(Competition now closed!)
Send your entries to: LSR Car Design Competition:
Mach 1 Club, PO Box 77, Hampton, Middx, England TW12 2XN
BOOKS & POSTERS FOR SALE
We will shortly have T-shirts available but don't forget that in the meantime copies of the superb Michael Turner poster of Thrust SSC storming across the Black Rock Desert are still available.
Send a pounds sterling cheque drawn on a UK bank for £4.00 (+£2.00 p&p) for each poster required.
Make payable to "SSC Programme Ltd" to:
Supersonic Car Poster, PO 77, Hampton, TW12 2XN
If you want to know more about Thrust SSC's predecessor Thrust 2 and the whole project that led up to its successful record runs, then we have just the book for you. Written by renowned motor sport author David Tremayne, The Fastest Man on Earth is a 213 page soft bound title packed with all the information that can only be gained by working closely with the team. It's an absolute must for the bookshelf of anybody interested in the LSR
Send £12.95 including P&P for the UK, or £15.00 for the rest of the world. Sterling cheques only please, drawn on a UK bank.
Book Offer, Mach 1 Club, PO Box 77, Hampton, TW12 2XN
(Sorry !!! - All books sold Out !!!)
All material is copyright of Thrust SSC Programme Ltd and may not be copied without prior written permission
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