THE land speed record is under assault on a desert plain in Nevada and could be bested several times in coming weeks as two supercars push the mark on the ground toward its last major barrier: the speed of sound. In what is being termed the 'Showdown at Blackrock' and 'Duel in the Desert,' jet-powered cars built by Craig Breedlove and Richard Noble are tuning up in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada to challenge the record, which has stood at 633.468 miles per hour for nearly 14 years. Mr. Breedlove, 60, internationally known for repeatedly becoming 'the fastest man alive' 30 years ago, is back with a newly modified, arrowhead-shaped car bearing the same 'Spirit of America' name of his earlier record breakers. Mar 16, 2017 Chasing land speed records on the Alvord Desert. A year of preparing for speed culminated in one week of trials on the Alvord playa. Of the North American Eagle has always been to top the current land speed world record of 763 mph set in 1997 on the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, another area managed by the BLM. The Bonneville Salt Flats is a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah.The area is a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake.The property is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the 'Bonneville Speedway'. Mr. Noble, a 51-year-old Briton who captured the current land record at Black Rock on Oct. 4, 1983, in his Thrust II jet car, has returned to the desert with a new twin-jet vehicle called the Thrust SSC, which stands for supersonic car. On parallel courses laid out 300 feet apart, the cars are to take turns doing speed runs on the hard clay surface of North America's largest dry lake bed. To be certified by international authorities as setting an official record, a car must average a record speed over a measured mile in both directions, making both passes within an hour. The challengers plan to increase their speeds incrementally on the way toward the sound barrier. On the mile-high desert plain, the speed of sound (which changes with altitude and temperature) is about 750 m.p.h. Continue reading the main story![]() Mr. Breedlove opened the competition on Saturday before hundreds of spectators with a successful 227 m.p.h. run. It was the Spirit of America's first run since last October, when it was flipped over by a gust of wind during a high-speed dash and was damaged. The Thrust SSC, driven by Andy Green, a 35-year-old Royal Air Force pilot, was preparing to make its first run. Mr. Noble says the sound barrier is his goal this time around. He said last week at a news conference in Reno that along the way, 'we plan to beat the world land speed record several times.' Mr. Breedlove is more cautious. He said in an interview on Friday that he also wanted to capture some records, including topping the current mark and being the first to go faster than 700 m.p.h. He was the first man to go through the 400 m.p.h, 500 m.p.h., and 600 m.p.h. marks in the 1960's. 'I'm hoping to get the car up to 700 m.p.h., which would make me very happy,' Mr. Breedlove said. 'At that point, we will pull back and assess.' Because of the many unknowns at these speeds, he said, it may be premature to assault the sound barrier this year. 'I'd like to design an autopilot system and first make an unmanned run at the sound barrier,' he said. 'If the car made it, then we could try it with a dummy: me.' Mr. Breedlove's caution reflects the many unanswered questions concerning what happens to a vehicle on the ground as it approaches and tries to exceed the speed of sound. The forces at play when a car goes from subsonic to supersonic speeds are difficult to simulate in wind tunnels or with computer projections, experts say. Before reaching supersonic speeds, aircraft, and presumably cars, pass through a transonic zone in which air rushes past different parts of the vehicle at varying speeds, generating pressure and shock waves that influence lift and drag. While engineers have experience dealing with the supersonic shock waves coming off planes, no one knows how such waves would affect a ground vehicle. If a car moving at these speeds lifts off the ground or veers from its heading by even a few degrees, it could quickly end up in uncontrollable tumbles or rolls that would destroy both the car and driver. Even as they acknowledge the risks of their ventures, Mr. Breedlove and Mr. Noble say they believe that their cars can operate at transonic speeds or higher. They say that they can edge into the unknown to nudge the speed record up. Neither car carries an ejection seat or escape capsule for the driver. The designers are relying on computerized monitors or the drivers to shut down the cars at the first sign of trouble. Mr. Noble's team designed the Thrust SSC using supercomputer simulations, wind tunnel tests and the results of running scale models attached to rocket sleds at supersonic speeds. What resulted is a big machine with a thin fuselage and a vertical tail at the rear that is sandwiched between two rounded compartments that each contain a military surplus Rolls-Royce Spey engine. These power plants combine to give the vehicle -- which weighs almost 15,000 pounds and is 54 feet long -- 50,000 pounds of thrust and 100,000 horsepower. The craft, which rides about 10 inches off the ground, was tested in the al-Jafr Desert in Jordan earlier this year and reached a peak speed of 540 m.p.h. Newsletter Sign UpContinue reading the main storyThank you for subscribing.An error has occurred. 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Mr. Noble, who said he had given up the chance to pilot his car so he could devote all of his time to managing the project and and finding financing for it, has raised several million dollars in money and services from numerous corporate sponsors and private donors. The British group is still trying to raise money to continue the Black Rock operation through October, when seasonal rains usually close the course. Mr. Breedlove, with the Shell Oil Products Company as a primary sponsor and donations from other corporate supporters, has been able to concentrate on designing and driving his 9,000-pound, 44-foot-long car. The Spirit of America is a slender, aluminum-alloy craft powered by a single General Electric J-79 engine that was formerly used in a Navy F-4 Phantom II fighter. This engine, which delivers about 23,000 pounds of thrust and 45,000 horsepower and is modified to run on ordinary gasoline, is behind the driver, who sits in the tip of the car's pointed nose. Mr. Breedlove narrowly escaped injury last October when he applied full power to the car for the first time; an unexpectedly strong wind gust picked up the rear, and the car got away from him. Going at an unofficial speed of 675 m.p.h., the car rolled onto one side and made what Mr. Breedlove called the world's fastest U-turn. The vehicle was severely damaged. After the incident, the Spirit of America went through numerous modifications, Mr. Breedlove said. The changes including removing a stabilizing fin from the bottom of the car, increasing the size of the top fin, moving the parachutes from the underside to the top, increasing the rear ground clearance, which was eight inches, by almost a foot to allow more air flow, and reshaping the fairings that cover the rear axle and extend, winglike, toward the rear wheels to provide more downward forces on the rear. ![]() Mr. Breedlove said, 'We've done things to add a little more drag to the car to keep it down on the ground.' While the operations in the Black Rock Desert have the best chance of setting new land speed records in the near future, two smaller groups with fewer resources have also designed jet cars and are testing them for a run at the record books. An Australian team headed by a racer, Rosco McGlashan, is set up on the salt flats of Lake Gairdner in South Australia. The group is awaiting drier conditions and an infusion of money to begin runs with its new car, the Aussie Invader 3, in a month or two. Download naruto shippuden episode 100-200. In addition, an American group based in the Seattle area is running 300 m.p.h. trials with a jet car called the North American Eagle, previously called American Eagle One. The group, directed by Richard Kikes and Ed Shadle, says it plans high-speed runs later this year or next. Mr. Kikes said he would remain in the race for a world's record even if Mr. Breedlove and Mr. Noble set new ones at Black Rock. 'If there is a record, somebody will go for it,' he said. The same spirit is alive at Black Rock, as Mr. Breedlove and Mr. Noble labor to top the mark Mr. Noble already holds. 'The goals I've set are possible to achieve,' Mr. Breedlove said. 'The performance is in the vehicle, and we just have to figure out how to make it happen.'
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