How do you train to drive a car at supersonic speed? That is the question occupying Andy Green as Thrust SSC, the Castrol-sponsored jetcar which aims to be the first to exceed the Sound Barrier on land, is nearing completion at the project's new base, Q Shed, Farnborough, UK. Already he has experienced its phenomenal acceleration before it has even left its workshop, via a sophisticated simulator developed by the Defence Research Agency offshoot of Systems Integration (DRA), for whom he works at Farnborough. But now the RAF Squadron Leader is beginning to concentrate on the physical requirements of the task ahead.
It's been a busy period for Green, since he switched from an operational flying role in May last year to become an Air Defence Advisor for the DRA, and presently his workload is a satisfying blend of simulator work and actual flying, each part requiring a very high standard of ability. "Actually I've been 'driving' all sorts of interesting things over the past few months. And just when I thought it was quietening down and I could sit and do a week's report-writing, a guy in London phoned up recently and said, 'If you've got nothing to do this week, get on and do this trial for us...' You find yourself thinking: 'But when are we supposed to write up the previous two?' Work is just backing up and backing up!.
"I work in a section called JOUST as in knights and long poles, on the JOUST air combat simulator. Right now we are trialling real concepts, the front line RAF Tornado against the export version of the MIG 29 which the Russians have on the market. We are analysing several of the possible modifications to Tornado to find out how effective they might be."
Some of Green's workload encompasses not just working on the next generation of fighter aircraft but, at times, the generation beyond that. By any standard it is not only demanding, but extremely high level. Besides all this vital simulator work, however, he has also been flying real aircraft.
"It's very much just an occasional thing, just to keep me in touch with what's going on in the front line. But because I'm doing so much simulator flying - I'm 'flying' the simulator 10 times more than I did the real Tornado - I was actually quite pleasantly surprised, having been back there recently, that virtually none of the skills have disappeared at all. I just jumped in the back of a British Aerospace Hawk on a really busy high workload sortie leading a formation around, low level, poor weather, and I actually flew virtually all of the sortie and had no problems with it at all. In the first 10 minutes I thought, 'Wow I'd forgotten this was so busy!' but the rest of it went much, much better than I would have expected having been away from the front line for nine months.
"I've got the advantage that I've been working in a high-fidelity simulator so I don't feel that I've been away from flying much at all, and in some ways I'm concentrating on the sort of tactics that the Tornado guys may be developing in two or three years' time if the aircraft get modified with one of the trial fits we are using right now. It's an interesting situation to be in."
So much for the continuing mental fitness. Now he is also stepping up his usual physical fitness regime in readiness for the first test runs of SSC which are scheduled for the middle of the year.
"I am starting to raise the level of the normal exercise I do. That's a combination of circuits in the gym, and running, so it's aerobic and strength exercises. When it comes to running, I like moving scenery I get bored looking at the same thing and tend not to use a running machine. I'll actually go for a two or three-mile run, at a reasonably brisk pace. It's half weights, half running."
Already he knows that he won't require a different level of sheer strength from flying to drive Thrust SSC. "There won't actually be a great deal of strength required to handle the car. It's more the actual fitness and stamina in terms of working long days in the desert. And the mental alertness. If you are fit then you can cope with fatigue that much better; and stay that much sharper. The actual types of exercise are less important than the overall fitness and stamina side, so it's very much up to me and any advice I get, when it comes to sorting out some sort of convenient, practical training regime. It's the level of fitness that's the important thing, not necessarily how we achieve it"
Green has also visited the Silverstone Driving Centre, and recently completed 60 laps, some of them on a wet track, driving a Formula Ford racing car. With racing driver Eugene O'Brien he completed a preliminary trial to see what he could get out of the discipline, and more is scheduled. "Quite obviously I can learn a tremendous amount in terms of car handling and performance, and it was also a looksee for them to find out if there are any potential weaknesses in what I can do with a car and where perhaps I can concentrate in future. It was a lot of fun. We did some skidpan work, saloon car running, then the Formula Ford. When the track was wet it was very slippery and that was exactly what I needed to put the car on the edge all the time. They told me to get it up there, and said they wanted to see me locking the wheels, sliding the car; and then getting it back under control. It was perfect for me!"
Now that the countdown has started he is raring to go. "I cannot wait. I'm almost having to be chained down at the moment!"
An amiable, outgoing character, Andy Green is reticent about only one aspect of his training to date. How many times did he spin the racing car? He laughs. "That's classified information. I can't answer that question!"
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