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British team breaks land speed record
September 25, 1997
Web posted at: 7:49 p.m. EDT (1949 GMT)GERLACH, Nevada (CNN) -- British fighter pilot Andy Green shattered the world land speed record on Thursday with a run nearly 74 mph faster than the one his boss set here almost 14 years ago.
The Thrust SSC team headed by Richard Noble shrugged off the threat of showers for two blazing runs in the Black Rock Desert 125 miles north of Reno.
British break land speed record
2 min. VXtreme video
The 35-year-old Green pushed Noble's 10-ton, twin-engine jet car to 700.661 mph on the first of two timed dashes down the 13-mile course, then turned around within the allotted one hour for a 728.008 mph clincher.
His average of 714.144 mph shattered the 633.47 mph Noble established October 4, 1983.
He had been trying to break the record since early September.
"The most unstable it went was when it drifted 10 feet off the line and came right back again," Green said, referring to earlier run. "We proved the point; we can do pretty much any profile we want to, and the car will behave itself."
Noble announces the final speeds 608K/27 sec. AIFF or WAV sound British team set the land speed record 480K/10 sec. QuickTime movie Under the rules, the car must exceed the old record by 1 percent during two timed runs through a measured mile. The two speeds are averaged.
But breaking the record doesn't mean the battle is over. The British car is in a back-and-forth showdown in the desert against American driver Craig Breedlove, who held the land speed record several times in the 1960s.
His vehicle this year, "Spirit of America," features just one jet engine but weighs 50 percent less than the "Thrust."
"It (Thrust) is an extremely different design than Spirit of America," said Breedlove, 60. "It's not a design that I would have chosen."
He is confident his car can challenge Noble's. "I think we have the car to do it. I think it's a better car than the English have, and I think we'll prevail."
The next big hurdle for both the American and British teams: trying to break the speed of sound -- about 750 mph.
CNN Technology Correspondent Dick Wilson, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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