Following Records
The land speed record set by Blue Flame was broken on 4 October, 1983 by Richard Noble driving his turbojet-powered Thrust2. This broke the mile record of 622.407 mph, raising it to 633.468 mph. New records are only counted if they are at least 1% over the existing record, so this run of 634.052 mph over one kilometre was not considered to set a new kilometre record and Blue Flame's still stood.
Blue Flame's kilometre record of 1014.513 km/h (630.388 mph) lasted until 1997 - for 27 years - and was set as an average of the achieved speed in both directions ((629.412 + 631.367)/2= 630.388 mph). It was broken, once again by Richard Noble's Thrust team, with Andy Green driving the Thrust SSC turbofan-powered car.
Thrust SSC set two official World Land Speed Records at the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA. On 25th September 1997 the car achieved 714.144mph over two runs of the measured mile and on October 15th 1997 set an average speed, again over the mile, of 763.035mph. Most importantly both runs were in excess of Mach 1, the speed of sound.
Richard Noble and Andy Green are currently working on a 1000mph car design using both an EJ200 jet engine and a rocket motor in a vehicle called Bloodhound SSC.
Read more about this topic: Blue Flame (car)
Famous quotes containing the word records:
“Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“My confessions are shameless. I confess, but do not repent. The fact is, my confessions are prompted, not by ethical motives, but intellectual. The confessions are to me the interesting records of a self-investigator.”
—W.N.P. Barbellion (1889–1919)