Thrust SSC - Media Zone

Thrustbrief 32 - 24th September 1997

Battle for Mach 1 On Land

Both the ThrustSSC and Spirit of America teams spent today continuing their preparation work for their next attempts at moving the land speed record towards Mach 1. Spirit of America continue working on their fuel system and Operations Manager Bill Breedlove believes that it will be Friday before Craig Breedlove will be able to test the modifications.

Meanwhile, the Thrust Team have identified and fixed the cause of yesterday's double parachute failure. The drogues that pull out the main chutes are connected by lanyards designed to be the weakest part of the assemblies. The lanyards were slightly weaker than first thought and repeated use at higher and higher speeds caused them to reach "end of life" earlier than expected. New lanyards have been tested and connected to both chutes ready for tomorrow's runs.

Nick Dove, Chris Cowell and the engineering team have completed their checks on the rest of the car and made it ready for a 10:00am roll out, while Jack Franck, John Lovatt and the track team have lined and "fodded" four 13 miles tracks in record time and surveyed 10 additional tracks for further use if needed.

The Engineering Team have specified a 10:00am roll out for two runs with similar profiles - Mach 0.9 - although the exact Mach numbers will not be known until weather conditions have been checked tomorrow morning.




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