Well, quite frankly, we could do without another winter like that!
Whilst the project team are pushing ahead well and a very great deal has been achieved, from my perspective the money situation took an awful long time to improve. This meant that we had to slow production at G Force just at a crucial time - and just when we planned to accelerate it. This put 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 have done reasonably well.
Lack of one big title sponsor, means that we have to secure three new cash sponsors every month. For instance, in March we reached agreement with three cash sponsors 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 Ayers and Gillian Tracey ran a major assessment on the panel vibration which concluded 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 ThrustSSC. They are now planning a major industrial promotion and will be bringing their distributors and customers to see ThrustSSC 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 readers will be able to follow the project month by month as it happens - including the introduction of French pages on our Website.
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 a short while ago and the joke running round Bruno's bar was that we are now ageing 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 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 really made me 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 last Open Day at Fontwell. Over 600 applied and sadly we had to cut the numbers back to 450, which was all we could accommodate. As ever, the day was a huge success with all kinds of new contacts made while having great fun. The Mach 1 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!
As you will read elsewhere, at the beginning of May we left our good friends at G Force and moved ThrustSSC to our new airfield site at Farnborough. 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.
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