Catching the fastest man in the world - Andy Green

For someone who holds the land speed record, Wg Cdr Andy Green doesn’t talk like a man in a hurry. He’ll happily go into the details of his latest project should you prod him, and will pepper his words with some Brit wit. That makes him exceedingly easy to chat with and very relatable. Just as well, because I had a whole machine gun worth of questions to fire at him.

Of course, we start off with tales of him breaking the speed of sound (1235kph!) in the Thrust SSC in 1997, a record that hasn’t been broken yet. But not before long, the conversation veers to the latest project he and what he calls ‘the best engineering team in the world’ are working on. It’s the Bloodhound SSC and the aim this time is to cross 1000mph, or 1600kph! To put things in perspective, even the most powerful fighter jets can’t fly that fast at ground level.

Interestingly, setting a new record is not the sole aim of the project. The other intent is rather noble. As Andy puts it, “The target audience is 12 years old and hasn’t quite realised how exciting engineering and science is yet. We want to bring the Bloodhound SSC alive to inspire them.” Inspiring the engineers of tomorrow is also what brought Andy to India, to speak about the attempt at the 2014 IET Lord Austin Lecture at Chennai and Bangalore.

Soon enough, we get talking about the scale of the challenge, both in terms of engineering and human requirements. “We’re going 400kph faster than the current record, which is the single largest percentage increase between attempts. It really is unknown, unproven territory,” Andy remarks. To get to the ludicrous speeds being attempted, the spacecraft-like Bloodhound SSC will rely on a jet engine (from a Eurofighter Typhoon) and a rocket that will be fired to power the car beyond 600kph. The hybrid rocket (one that uses a solid fuel and liquid oxidizer for combustion) to be used was tested recently and, to the team’s delight, produced even more power than expected. “There’s no such thing as too much power in a land speed record car!” Andy quips. The team has also got the wheels in place – made from forged aluminium, they weigh 100kg each and are designed to spin at 10,000rpm!

But looking at illustrations of the Bloodhound, I picture the cockpit to be very cramped. As I’m told, it’s not. Relative to race cars and fighter jets, that is. Andy designed the cockpit himself and has made it as close to those of the fighters he’s used to flying. As he explains, in the Bloodhound, he’s dealing with the same volume of data he would in a fighter and needs all the screens around. Of the things he has to monitor on the runs is info from three engines, coolant temperatures, feeds from the hydraulic systems and brakes and, of course, speed. Who said driving a land speed record car was ever going to be easy?