The smell of speed

Andy Green talks to Chinese fans about Bloodhound SSC, a supersonic car he aims to use to best his own world record

Andy Green can move faster than sound even on the ground.

The 52-year-old Briton has held the world record for speed on land for the past 18 years.

He was in Beijing recently to introduce to Chinese racing fans a supersonic car named Bloodhound SSC that he plans to use to break his last record.

In 1997, Green broke the world record in Thrust SSC by achieving a speed of 1,228 kilometers per hour, becoming the first person to travel faster than sound at ground level. Now he is targeting a speed of more than 1,600 km/h with Bloodhound SSC. The car has the engine of a jet plane and can be controlled both manually and by a computer.

Bloodhound will be tested in the United Kingdom before it aims to set a new world record in South Africa this summer. Live videos and updates will be provided from the racing track as well. Using technology developed over decades, the Bloodhound team, led by Richard Noble (who was also the project director for Thrust SSC), is working with companies and UK universities on the speed project.

Green says his team is trying to reach the same audience globally in the digital age that NASA reached in 1969 when it made the US the first country to send people to the moon.

The history of land speed records dates back more than a century. In 1898, the world's first such record was made at 63 km/h in a French electric car. It was slightly slower than the bicycle record at the time. The speed zoomed in the 20th century with the invention of the jet engine. The British have dominated the field for most of its history, according to Green.

Green says that he is as nervous as an astronaut awaiting a space flight because the driving and the car design have to be really good to get the job done.

Recalling his past experiences in the cockpit-like area of such speedy cars, he says that the heat generated inside was usually overwhelming, and the jet engines were very noisy.

But those are common occurrences inside such high-speed cars.

"Apart from the heat, the noise, the vibration, the gravity and the car sliding on the desert, it should be easy," he says, jokingly.

It should take Green only four minutes to break the world record. For him, driving a supersonic car is mainly a mental challenge.

"It's not a major physical challenge. Most of the challenge is to ignore all the distractions and the noise so I can concentrate on controlling the car."

Green's father briefly served in the British Royal Air Force. Green recalls growing up with lots of stories of flying. He received a scholarship to Oxford University, where he acquired first class honors in mathematics in 1983. After graduation, he joined the RAF and became a fighter pilot and later a wing commander.

The early training in mathematics and flying allows him to be involved in every aspect of the Bloodhound SSC, including engineering and driving.

Asked about his fitness regime, Green says he maintains a routine of cardio, running or bike exercises on most days, although he is lucky not to have to diet. And he remains a careful driver both on and off the racing track.

He says his wife drives faster than he does. "It would be too embarrassing for me to be stopped for speeding."

Green and his team share their excitement through education programs, hoping to inspire young scientists and engineers to work on future projects. The team has also worked with the British government to show the car to about 100,000 students every year since 2008.

"It is an adventure through record to inspire the next generation," Green says. "They are the people who will build and live in the high-tech and low-carb world (of) tomorrow."

But the world needs more engineers, he adds. He gives China as an example and says that 35 percent of companies are struggling to find enough technical expertise to grow and expand, and it's the same in the UK and elsewhere.

Green is now talking to companies that want to translate his website into Chinese.

Rolex, one of the sponsors of the Bloodhound project, provides an analog speedometer and chronograph that are independent of the Bloodhound power system, so that Green will have precise speed and timing readouts for this record, the watchmaker said in a statement.

sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 06/19/2015 page29)