Club Arnage

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Peter, I'm not certain but this may be the project that Steve Fossett is (was) associated with.

A Starfighter when it had it's wings still on was nicknamed the widowmaker, I hope this doesn't reflect on this project.

The Craig Breedlove '1000 mph' car demonstrated it could be unstable at subsonic speeds (single engine reaction on the fuselage).  A huge amount of stress analysis / model rocket sled testing / wind tunnel testing was carried out on Thrust SSC before they were happy it would not fly or plough into the desert.

Another long time contender for the Unlimited LSR is Rosco McGlashan with his various Aussie Invader cars.  John Ackroyd (designer and team member of Thrust 2) has acted as his designer. http://www.aussieinvader.com/ (http://www.aussieinvader.com/)

I remember seeing a program possibly on one of the discovery channels earlier this year about this project.

If I recall it was very much an amateur affair but with a very talented and committed group of people.

The engines are apparently extremely complex but efficient and difficult to find , the one they had tore up the turbines when it was running.

Whilst it would be sad to lose the record to a former colony I wish them all the best with their endeavor.

It would be quite an event to witness.

No Steve Fossett's LSR project is not this one. Steve bought Spirit of America 3 from Craig Breedlove and was reworking that car.

Yes, I've just been reading Steve Fossett's website -

"The S&S LM-1500 turbojet powered racer is nearing completion at Fossett's Sparks, NV (near Reno) workshops where Steve's 'Target 800 MPH' team under project director Eric Ahlstrom has been hard at work since September 2006. The car started life in the early 1990's as the third of LSR legend Craig Breedlove's 'Spirit of America' series challengers - originally designed to break Noble's 1982 record of 633 mph. Fossett purchased the project from Breedlove in mid-2006. Numerous changes have been implemented since the car's last runs in 1997, including a lengthened wheelbase and widened rear track to improve stability, this requiring major upgrades to the primary structures."

etc etc

Whilst it is nice to have the LSR crown via Thrust SSC, it's good to see that there are some pretenders fluttering in the wings to have a crack at it - as with many such projects, success will doubtless come down to a rare combination technology that works, financial backing to bring it up to scratch and fund the attempt, and luck.  Good luck to them, hope they stay safe, and hope that they don't quite manage to wrestle the crown off Thrust SSC!

With all the other aviation tragedies we have had over the last week, the search for Steve Fossett has been a bit overshadowed - a great man in the world of pioneers, records and adventure, and I imagine that with the time elapsed now, the worst outcome is sadly the inevitable one.  That they have found half a dozen other previously unknown wrecks speaks volumes for the territory that he seems to have come down in.

MG Mark

It was ten years ago this month (and into October) that Thrust SSC was at Black Rock breaking the sound barrier.
714 mph - 25th Sept 97
763 mph - 15th Oct 97

Thanks Steve,
 I expect to see a suitable picture on the 15th of October then ;D
 10 years is a respectable time for a record to stand and Thrust SSC will always be the first to have broken the speed of sound.
 Phil

From the looks of that contraption, the driver will probably be sanded to bits, when that thing crashes. Looks very unstable to me!

I predict that an IRL car will be the first to achieve low Earth orbit.

By a fine stroke of luck, I ended up having a good chat with one of the real authorities on the subject over a beer or two yesterday evening, the man who drove Thrust SSC.  By all accounts, and as alluded to earlier, the NAE project is going to encounter stability and lift issues at high speed, as you might anticipate from taking an aircraft, removing its wings and nailing wheels onto it.  But top marks for having a go.  However, the Aussie project is apparently the one to look out for and follow progress - a good design that draws on all the lessons learnt in the Thrust and other LSR projects, and sufficient thrust from rocket power give it a serious chance of success, providing the combination of design, technology, funding, weather and luck all come together at the right moment.  

Mind you, sitting inside something shoved along by a fuel load of 10,000lbs+ of liquid oxygen and jet fuel isn't my idea of a safe fuel combination.....  

MG Mark

... and a JCB diesel  ;)


The Blue Flame was fueled by a combination of hydrogen peroxide and liquified natural gas.  She was driven by Gary Gabelich to 622 mph in 1970.  That record lasted for 13 years (taken by Richard Noble in Thrust 2).

And jolly interesting it was, amongst other things chatting about the differences in technology between Thrust SSC, which was basically analogue/mechanical everything and the JCB project, which was digital/programmeable everything.  And, of course, as you rightly surmised, as we race a diesel, we did talk at some length about what they had done with theirs! 

The fuel thing is an interesting one - Blue Flame was a bit like the good old British Black Arrow rocket, which also used hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant in the process, which like natural gas and jet fuel, is a relatively stable material to store, transfer and use.  Liquid oxygen on the other hand is a refrigerated bomb that will go off entirely on its own given half a chance....

MG Mark

Perhaps he is looking for a canoe.......

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080728/twl-did-adventurer-fake-his-death-3fd0ae9.html

 ;)

We are approaching the 80th anniversary of when Sir Henry Seagrave took the LSR to over 231mph on 11 March 2009 with the Golden Arrow at Daytona.  Good Boy's Own hero material, with the sparring back and forth with Campbell Snr around that time. 

Coming bang up to date, once again, I may have happened this evening upon the good fortune of meeting a particularly interesting and knowledgeable person by chance....Bloodhound (UK, let's go faster than 1,000mph on 4 wheels)....... http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/ (http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/)- will, in all likelihood, put the NA Eagle (let's go a bit faster than Thrust SSC with an F-104 fuselage) and the Aussie 1000mph contender, both of which have not moved forward in recent times, into the shade, and the Bloodhound project is coming along nicely.  Design done and being refined, build starting soon, wheels due on and testing runs in about 12 months, and the actual runs scheduled for 2011.  The "where to do the runs" question has thrown up a most interesting probability outside the traditional US and Australian LSR haunts, but one that is not unknown to LSR history (1929, and no it's not Pendine...). 

An engine that normally powers a Typhoon, supplemented by an HTP rocket (see previous post on 1950s Black Arrow....) gives you the oooomph needed to go from 0-1000-0 mph in around 90 seconds, in less than 12 miles.  Interesting combination, with a current 800bhp race-derived V12 being installed just to power the pump to deliver the power needed to shift over 1 ton of HTP to the rocket in 15-20 seconds....oh, and the pump is a repro of the 50's Blue Steel propellant pump, and the chief aerodynamicist designed, amongst other things, Thrust SSC and the 50's Bloodhound missile. 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it....just thought you'd like to know....

MG Mark