Is the Land Speed Record About to Fall?

1000 mph (1609,3 kph) on land? - I want some of whatever he is smoking.

Braver man than me!

Guest -- It isn't exactly something that's smoked. But it is just as powerful. Come to Bonneville Speedweek in August. That's where you'll find it. Out in the middle of a tractless salt desert. If you're into automotive stuff you'll find it is is something contagious.

Don't expect Richard Noble to be there. Speedweek is an amateur event for a large number of cars and bikes. When they run the Bloodhound they will not want a lot of company because of the nature of the way they have to operate with a jet car at the speeds they are shooting for. But their quest is simply a higher mountain than the wheel driven land speed racer community that gathers at Speedweek are used to. It's still about the "mountain", the motivation to conquer it and the culture of the people who do try.

Ed Weldon

No. The land speed record isn't about to fall. It might be about to rise, though.

Fascinating stuff looking through the records. I knew that Richard Noble held the record himself for a while, but, realised that he needed to get a "proper pilot": Andy Green to take the challenge to the next stage. But did you notice that Henry Ford himself held the record for a couple of months in 1904.

It's a shame that the IC engine (or any engine which drives the vehicle via the wheels) records don't attract so much attention. I see that according to this list there was one 409 mph internal combustion engine record in 1965.

That IC powered vehicle, called the Goldenrod, is on display at the Ford Museum in Dearborn. I just saw it this past week end. It is four wheel drive and has four 426 Hemi engines. There is some history (but not enough) on display with it. One of the two brothers that designed and built it was an engineer.

I see from your link that it held the land speed record for a short time. Of coarse it held the record for IC powered vehicles for many years. It is super cool.

You don't want to get a speeding ticket at that speed!

I'm thinking that you beef up the landing gear on an F-16 and don't take off. If you run into trouble just pull back the stick. It would appear to be a less expensive and safer approach?

The North American Eagle is a LSR car made from an F-104. They are looking for a top speed of 800 mph. Go to landspeed.com to see how much the original aircraft had to be modified.

BTW, they need sponsors, if anyone is interested.

Interesting...thanks!

"Oh , alright" ... no yawns ... "that's cool"... B U T;

all that engineering effort, all that money, all those resources ... all the collective BRAIN POWER , spent for..................?what?...!

Why not team-up and go after something that'll really MATTER to the whole of society / civilization? Plenty of mass-transit ideas yet to be developed, as well as vehicles that we could actually USE, to reduce congestion, pollution, and reliance on foreign oil, etc.

I doubt that any of THESE technological 'breakthroughs' will ever be applied towards getting me from Houston, into-and-out-of New York any time in the foreseeable future.

Call me a fuddy-duddy. Call me a whack-o. Call me a 'fanatic' if you wish.

But I see this sort of "mis-direction" in the same vein as I see the throngs of misguided souls who spend their 'spare change' (oftentimes, HUGE outlays; I see kids going hungry) modifying their cars to be able to jump and bounce higher than the guy down the block.

"Pick-a-Cause"...any cause... ! Imagine what 50 such talented guys could do for their community. Modify a beat-up municipal truck to perform 'custom' road repairs in record time, and (with a bit of community sponsorship) highlight their town / neighborhood as having the most fantastic roadways in America ... IN SPITE OF the beaureacratic parasites responsible for the original mess.

Every important decision ever made was subject-to a "weighing", of sorts. About half who read this will agree, and the rest will scoff (as is their nature), that when making decisions there lies (hidden within the details) a tug-of-war between good and evil.

And all-too-many are head over heels in love with that which highlights individual vanity, or lauding another individual for his/her own vain accomplishments.

Brute force. I pray for Richard's pilot, that he survives this application of brute force (yes, combined with lots of techno-engineering) to break the record. And likewise pray for the NEXT guy, who tries to better it again. Because somewhere along the line, we KNOW that one of these attempts will fail ... and what a tragic loss of life it will be.

And ... how many of our progeny will be bettered (or better-off) as a result of all that time, energy, money, and ... life? Did I hear that NASA's suffering a budget-cut...?

Ed,

You get a GA from me for your well articulated argument. If you won't mind I'd like to synopsised and expand your argument:

Setting any new physical record limit is always research into the unknown. Those who criticize exploring the unknown by asking for immediate benefit do not understand the concept of basic research. No one knows what good this will produce because it's never been done before. All knowledge comes from exploring these envelopes.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, what good will come from a new born baby? Because we don't know if that child will be the next A. Schweitzer or A. Hitler, should humanity stop having babies? To stifle research because of not knowing the benefit is like trying to stifle humanity itself.

So to the Bloodhound team I say, go for that 1000 mph goal. But since I cannot be there to cheer you on, please bring a camera crew. I want to see you fly!!

This is supposed to be fun, not work. Get a life my friend! You will soon need it.

Besides who wants a bus to go 1000 mph? METRO can't keep from running over people in buses that barely exceed 70 MPH, and an at-grade train (the DangerTrain) that doesn't exceed 35 mph. and they were recently outrun by a guy on a bike!=b

If you ask me, you just need a better class of driver, and a transit agency willing to build their trains with separated grades.

You are right and wrong at same time. You are right asking gifted people to involve in more project oriented to global progress, you are wrong because all those special project you do not like have the advantage to push technology to its limits or even to discover limits which were considered much to narrow before the dare devil involvment

We NEED such projects as much as we need those you appreciate.

Well said friend, well said!

Best of luck to him.

New knowledge is bound to come out and who knows what use we will eventually find for it?

BTW it costs the public nothing for this research.

BTW2 I hope they don't want to use Lake Eyre so they can get a longer run than at Bonneville. Despite drought, global warming and all manner of "the sky is falling" prognostications, Lake Eyre has been filled numerous times in the last 30 odd years. Something that's not supposed to happen in the lowest rainfall area of the driest inhabited continent! (A local station owner reckons he is the only person to have ever been shipwrecked on Lake Eyre!)