Land Speed Record: Green and Noble team up again to top 1,000 MPH

The Americans were led by someone whose name doesn't come to mind, and driven by someone who, sadly for one so brave and so determined, has also disappeared from recollection. For Noble and Green, struggling to raise the money to keep going, and trying to get their message out by any means they could via a media that didn't care much, it was a frequent battle for survival and funding.

At the British motorshow, some of the team took time away from the factory to allow people to have a go in the simulator for a very small fee. I remember it well: my ten year old son who could only just see out of the cockpit was cheered by the team, and people around for his outstanding performance. The top three of the day were supposed to get certificates: he got one, too - for being fourth out of hundreds of adults.

It's still on his wall, alongside the photos of his later days racing go karts, before reality kicked in and he had concentrate on exams, university and getting a proper job.

ThrustSSC was typically British: a few chaps in a shed with an idea that if you made a large pencil, put wheels on each corner and a jet engine in the back, it would go like stink.

It did.

ThrustSSC was, in some ways, what we British had been waiting for since Concorde. The Americans went to the moon in a spacecraft they could use once and with three people in it. We build a plane that went to the edge of space, daily, and took 100 passengers. Since the moon landing, the number of passengers in US spacecraft numbers a few dozens. Concorde flew 1.3 million before corporate stupidity took it from us. It was a triumph of Briish engineering (with a great deal of input from the French, it has to be acknowledged) but, to we British, it was ours. We just let the French share it.

With ThrustSSC, we didn't have to share anything.

And so, over the summer of 1997, grown men sat like little boys, and little boys sat with them, anxiously waiting for the latest news from Black Rock Desert. It's true, the Americans do do some things bigger and better and large empty spaces is one of those things. Those of us lucky enough to have internet access (itself very cutting edge in the UK in 1997) were able to visit the website at www.thrustssc.com .

We pored over pictures showing the shockwaves, like bow-waves on a ship, as the car approached Mach 1; we agonised over the fickle weather silently pleading with it it not to spoil the runs; we wished we were there, sweltering in the sun picking up stones to make the runs as safe as possible. But mostly, we just hoped.

And we hoped in our millions: despite the internet being new, and not many people having access to it, the ThrustSSC website also broke records - getting a staggering 11 million visitors inits peak weak.

Then, as the weather threatened to shut down the project for the winter, on 13th October 1997, Andy Green pushed ThrustSSC through the sound barrier, turned the car around and did it again on the return run. But the turnaround had gone over the authorised time (the turnaround had taken 49 seconds too long) and although the deal was done, it wasn't signed because both runs must take place within a specified, and short, time frame.

Two days later, the team were prepared in case a slow turnaround happened after the first run: this time they prepped car and driver to to three runs - the main crew being at the point that would be the second turnaround if itwas needed. Wing Commander Green walked out to the car, almost looking like the fighter pilot he was in real life, buckled up, pressed the red button and drove into the history books.

A pit board was hung out by the ThrustSSC crew: "Americans 531; British - Boom Boom", partially in tribute to that most British of comedians, Basil Brush for whom Boom Boom was a catchphrase meaning "that's it."

And it was. Spirit of America made no more runs. She was loaded up, and shipped home. Her best speed, a year earlier, had been 675 MPH but at the time of Thrust's supersonic run, was achieving just 531 MPH . ThrustSSC consistently beat 700 and the certified record was 763MPH.

Throughout the project, Richard Noble had made it all about ThrustSSC, the attempt on the world record and Andy Green. He didn't make much of the fact that in October 1983, he himself, driving Thrust II, had set the then land speed record of 663.5 MPH.

So, why the history lesson?

Simple: they are at it again. Richard Noble and Andy Green, at last with (albeit limited) government backing for a project for the pride of the country have launched BloodhoundSSC. It's a three year project with the sole objective of beating ThrustSSC's record - and achieving two remarkable milestones.

First, to set the land speed record at a speed exceeding 1,000 miles per hour.

Secondly, in doing so to exceed the airspeed record for low flying aircraft.

Welcome back, boys.