• ThrustSSC Runs Report - Wednesday 4th June
• ThrustSSC Engineering Report
• ThrustSSC completes Jordan Campaign
• ThrustSSC heads for home

ThrustSSC Runs Report - Wednesday 4th June

First run ThrustSSC's first run of the day was completed successfully and the peak speed confirmed at 475mph. The rebonded pitot tube air speed sensor performed well and gave accurate correlation with the speed measured by the wheels. Authorisation was quickly given by the Design Team to proceed with next run as planned.

Second run

The day's second run was completed and a peak speed of 540mph confirmed by the Design Team - exactly as planned. Driver Andrew Green again reported minor steering difficulty as the car sped across the hard, uneven surface of the Al Jafr desert. Despite this, the car was brought safely to a halt with minimal deviation from the planned course.

ThrustSSC Engineering Report

Following the second run, ThrustSSC returned to its Aireshelta inflatable hanger for routine post-run inspection. This revealed that during the second run, a bracket had failed and limited damage had occurred to the rear suspension. This was the cause of Andy's concern noted during the second run and the failsafe design resulted in ThrustSSC being recovered safely from 540 mph.

In January, the ThrustSSC Team had taken the decision to try to return to Jafr with the intention of developing ThrustSSC to speeds of around 600mph in advance of the head to head race for Mach 1 against Craig Breedlove and Spirit of America Team starting on September 02. At that time it was known that Jafr desert was considerably harder and in places had a bumpier surface than Black Rock.

Driver Andrew Green said: "I was really pleased with the performance of the car, especially with the way I was able to stop safely even with the damaged rear suspension. This proves the safety aspects designed into the car are working well. I am confident that with a strengthened bracket, this car is capable of supersonic speeds on the smoother surface of the Black Rock desert in Nevada, USA".

Ron Ayers, ThrustSSC's aerodynamicist comments: "When we came out here we had five major objectives to achieve

1. Build up speeds preferably to 600mph
2. Check that we had cured the rear wheel shimmy problem.
3. Develop team practice in operations and record turn-arounds
4. Establish that ThrustSSC is stable and controllable
5. Prove our performance prediction software
6. Gain expertise in developing and using ThrustSSC's data logging system

"With the sole exception of the first objective (we achieved 90%) all of the above objectives were achieved 100% in 13 days. One more day of testing was all that was required to reach 600mph.

"In addition, the car exceeded its design performance and proved to be very stable, even on variable and unsympathetic surface. As the speed increased so did the aerodynamic download - precisely as we predicted by CFD during the research phase of the project. Such accuracy is essential for safe operation in the transonic region.

"Last but not least, Andy Green proved to be exceptionally good driver. His engineering assessments of all aspects of the cars performance has been of inestimable value to the Design Team."

ThrustSSC completes Jordan Campaign

Project Director and current World Land Speed Record holder, Richard Noble, and the entire team have therefore decided to complete the Jordan campaign. They will return to their base in Farnborough to immediately prepare for the forthcoming campaign on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.

Richard Noble commented later: "Our visit to Jordan has been highly successful for the ThrustSSC team - and it is quite clear that it has all come together in a big way. With the expenditure of 4,600 man hours in 13 days, we have flown to Jafr, established the Operational base on the desert, prepared the course and made 9 operational runs - all in 13 days. This is a truly remarkable achievement particularly with a car as large and complex as ThrustSSC. It is now quite clear that we have gone as fast as we can on the Jafr Desert - not only is the course too rough for higher speeds but the ambient temperatures are rising fast and shortly we shall have no daylight time cooler than 25C (the ThrustSSC temperature limitation) in which to run the car.

"We would like to thank His Majesty King Hussein, Prince Feisal al Hussein, our special friends in the Royal Jordanian Air Force, the Jordanian people for their hospitality during our stay and of course our sponsors Royal Jordanian Airlines who made this all possible.

"The Jordan testing is done - we are ready to go to the US."

ThrustSSC heads for home

The ThrustSSC team will begin their evacuation of the Al Jafr desert camp on Thursday 5th June and intend to be clear by the end of the day. Arrangements are being made to fly ThrustSSC and all the equipment back to England as soon as possible in the Heavylift Antonov 124 cargo plane - just as soon as the next one becomes available.

THRUSTSSC PERFORMANCE AT AL JAFR (Ground speed mph)

*Estimated speed - data lost.

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