Land Speed Record

Land speed record attempts on the Black Rock Desert

Chronology

4 October 1983, Richard Noble, Thrust2, 633.468mph

25 September 1997, Andy Green, ThrustSSC, 714.144mph

15 October 1997, Andy Green, ThrustSSC, 763.035mph (Mach 1.016)

Thrust2

• Thrust2 Wikipedia Entry
• John Ackroyd, "Just For The Record: Thrust2," CHW Roles & Associates, 1984. Thrust2 Black Rock Images
• Empowernetwork Thrust 2 page
• BBC Motion Gallery - Search Results "Thrust 2"
• Derrel S. Fulwider, "From Resource Management to People Management: Reflections of a Federal Land Manager," p 4, Winter-Spring 1986, The Humboldt Historian. Discussion about the May 11, 1983 public permit hearings in Gerlach and Reno. Map that shows the land speed record site.

Thrust SSC

• Thrustssc.com
  • Issue 176 Lead_Article
• Thrust SSC (Wikipedia)
• Thrust SSC Photo-Diary (John Coppinger)
• The Final Run 66 - Cockpit View (YouTube)
• Jet-powered car breaks sound barrier twice (CNN)
  • CNN Video

GERLACH, Nevada (CNN) - A British jet-powered car broke the sound barrier on land twice on Monday, officials said, making it the fastest object to have ever moved on wheels.

On the first run, the Thrust SuperSonic car roared across Nevada's Black Rock Desert at 764.168 mph, or 1.007 percent above the speed of sound, according to the official timekeepers.

The car, driven by British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green, left a muffled boom in its wake as it raced across the desert in clouds of dust.

Green, 35, achieved the milestone on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the first supersonic flight, by American test pilot Chuck Yeager on October 14, 1947.

The sound barrier, which varies according to altitude and temperature, is currently 755 mph on the Black Rock Desert. Green set the previous world speed record for a car on September 25 when he took Thrust up to 714 miles per hour.

On Sunday, the "Spirit of America" team led by Craig Breedlove made a test run of 517 miles per hour following a 531 mph run on Saturday. It's not clear what's next, if anything, for the Americans.

North American Eagle

• North American Eagle World Lands Speed Challenger
• North American Eagle 10/16/2007 trial run video (low quality)

Spirit of America

• http://www.chron.com/class/cars/timspell/archive/120306.html Craig Breedlove 5-time world land-speed record holder blasts into motorsports history By TIM SPELL, CRAIG Breedlove sat down to talk with me about future plans and his historical land-speed-record runs. It was November of 1997, Spirit of America

Steve Fossett

• February 1, 2008 Reno Gazette Journal: Female driver sought for land speed record

Links

• Land Speed Record
  • Land Speed Record (Wikipedia)
  • Land Speed Record Story (Speedace)
  • Land Speed Record (Peterrenn)
  • History of the LSR (dira.org)

• Eningeering News, 2011: Bloodhound team pins land-speed record hopes on Northern Cape’s Hakskeen Pan ... The current land-speed record was set in Nevada, in the US, in the Black Rock desert, so why not go back there? Tipler says that it isn’t flat enough anymore.