it's 1978 whilst designer John akroy and a growing team of Craftsmen create components for thrust 2 on the aisle of white wouldbe land speed record Challenger Richard Noble is locked in a continual search for funding it's proving difficult to get publicity for a project in a phase of development where progress is hard to see enter John akroy with an off-the-wall idea and John said I've got a solution you need a bit more publicity don't we I said yeah I sure you do well I'm one we make the seats so I said why the seats it's not actually in the sequence of building this thing well he said I think that we could get some television coverage for those seats so I I said right well John let's have a go so he talked to the the BBC guys and they said yeah we were looking for something to do John said well I get to make a sort of box and Noble sits in this box and we pour this hot mixture down the down the back and mold the seat to him and they went ahead and did it the film showing the seat molding was broadcast shortly afterwards on popular BBC Science Program Tomorrow's World watching that night was a senior manager at Industrial Services Company initial who recognized an exciting marketing opportunity when he saw one after meeting with Noble and akroy on the aisle of white initial agreed a sponsorship deal and we reached an agreement they would give us 20,000 quid W 20,000 quid gee this is fantastic um so Sunday we got 20,000 quid and we got a main sponsor in seeking sponsors Richard Noble had also been cting British Airways arguing that backing a project to create the world's fastest car would be a good match for an airline that flew the world's fastest passenger aircraft Concord Ba's marketing team were Keen but there was a fundamental problem ba did not have a marketing budget with which to fund thrust two finding a solution would require some creative thinking so let's start thinking what have you got that we can convert into money and there was a silence and then they said Montreal agreement I said what's that well the Montreal agreement basically amongst the airlines is enables us British Airways to um refund used tickets so you can imagine the situation from time to time you know we get a disgruntled passenger something goes wrong and uh we we've got the rights to refund the ticket so we can refund these tickets I said brilliant absolutely brilliant I mean is it going to be a limit to this and they said no you so I said all I've got to do is supply large quantities of tickets and you turn them into Cash absolutely so if this was fantastic I mean it's unbelievable situation because if you can imagine what's actually happening the Project's getting more and more expensive and you've got to keep it going somehow you've got to keep it going and money keeps it going that's the crucial thing and um you know and we got to have a system so I work for GKN I was traveling all over the world doing things for them and they'd also got an international division called GKN International so I went to see all my friends there and said look guys you've got to help me you really got to help me you're always traveling you all the time uh everywhere basically I want you to travel British Airways and to send me the tickets and they said I Richard I just don't believe this I don't this is a scam it's not a scam here's a letter fantastic right let's do it so they got going and they all started traveling British Airways and before long you know I was getting huge quantities of tickets and I was just simply sending them down the Cromwell Road and back came a came a check it was fantastic business and it got bigger and bigger and then the word got around and there were other companies suddenly appeared on the scene said look we we'd like to join in and send all our passengers all our Travelers British Airways I thought Christ it's getting out of control just it's an amazing way of generating f cash the ingenious funding arrangement with British Airways contributed massively to the funding and progress of project thrust in its early stages however a change of Ba's marketing strategy a year later would see them leave the project opting to sponsor classical orchestras instead fueled by sponsorship deals and those used airline tickets the project began to accelerate in every respect throughout early 197 9 on the aisle of white the huge frame that TI Reynolds had built was fitted with fuel tanks suspension components braking systems and ancillaries all centered around the mighty Rolls-Royce Avon engine and its After Burner being a British vehicle thrust 2 was right-and drive with a second cockpit on the opposite side capable of carrying occasional passengers or video equipment both cockpits were contained in a cage Arrangement within the space frame paneled with a sandwich of aluminium stainless steel and mineral wool this provided a fireproof barrier for the driver who was after all sitting immediately next to a military jet engine generating approximately 30,000 horsepower and inches in front of Tanks each containing 62 Gall of jet a fuel thrust 2's cockpit was deliberately minimalist a steering wheel with parachute buttons was mounted on a collapsible column with instruments for engine RPM speed and Jet pipe temperature on top of the dashboard below these were instruments and indicators for fuel brakes reheat status and oil pressure an accelerator pedal with Daytons for the afterburner and a brake pedal for use at low speed lay at the driver's feet four-wheel independent suspension was achieved with double wishbones at the front and trailing arms at the rear at the end of each run a military spec parachute would provide 6G deceleration down to 100 mph after that disc brakes designed by Glenn Bower from Lucas gurling would slow the car to a stop thrust 2 would need two sets of Wheels a conventional set fitted with tires from a lightning jet fighter would be used on runways up to 260 mph the set intended for the record attempts would be solid aluminium as tires would not stay on the rims at the speed required for a new record as conceived by John akroy thrust 2 stood 27 ft 4 in Long 8 4 in wide and 4 3 in high and weigh 4 tons on paper it would reach 650 mph over a distance of 7 m in just under 1 minute however those speed and acceleration Figures were all far in the future with the Jet Engine and most of the internal components fitted by June 1979 thrust 2 was ready to be rolled out of the workshop and head to the British Mainland the jet car was still missing most of its body panels but Acro felt it was important that the team learned to run the car before things progressed any further for 3 years Richard Noble had fought his way through a mass of reluctant sponsors and non-believers to get this far now it was time for him to show he could actually drive John acro's creation by early summer 1980 the team were at Raf conningsby to test the Avon 210 engine at full reheat despite having sat dormant for several years the X lightning engine fired up beautifully and trust 2 finally came to life in the latter half of 1980 the team began demonstration runs at air shows crowds were treated to the spectacle of noble holding the car on the brakes whilst running the engine up to maximum dry power then with the jet shrieking he would light the reheat and release the brakes thrust 2 would leap forwards accelerating to 100 mph in 2 and 1/2 seconds 3 seconds later it would be somewhere down the runway traveling at 200 mph and Noble would sh shut down fire the shoot and roll to a stop the power of the skeletal jet car was impossible to ignore on one run John akroy hitched a ride in the second cockpit to experience his creation firsthand Noble and his team were confident they could easily exceed the British record of ways at greenham common Air Base would barely provide enough space to accelerate the 4ton car run through a measured mile and then stop before the tarmac ran out at greenham common there was extra Jeopardy as a quarry lay immediately outside the perimeter at one end of the 10,000 ft Runway the car would need to run both ways to take the record Noble would also need to be disciplined with the enormous power available to him as the car's tires were only rated to 260 mph per hour beyond that there was a high probability that they might explode thrust 2 would need to be driven fast with a high degree of precision over two days in late September 1980 Richard Noble and thrust 2 claimed six new British speed records timed over various distances including the all important flying mile at by early 1981 with the British record in their pocket project thrust was advancing with some Swagger in its step confidence was high they would take the car to the Latter-Day home of the worldland speed record Bonville with 11 M of Clear Lake Bed thrust 2 should beat the current 622 mph record averaged over a mile by the required 1% just historically challenges for the record have rarely run as fast as anticipated by their designers Acro had calculated that thrust 2 should have a maximum Peak speed of 650 mph as it left the measured mile he would need more wind tunnel Data before he could be confident that the car originally intended as a mere demonstrator could deliver the record Richard Noble was also seeking some assurance that the car would have the performance needed to break the world record he reflected on advice he once received from Donald Campbell's Chief mechanic Leo Villa and Leo said Just remember this you've never got enough power um you know the engineers have always work this thing out very delicately and they'll say you need so much power you're going to get so much drag and one must equal the other but no you want more power and the RAF have been through this with the lightning and they move upgraded now to the lightning F6 and the F6 had the a 302 engine which had 17 compressor sections and this gave them a lot more power so that's what we got to have Noble's decision to change the engine to an Avon 302 was not popular with the team on the aisle of white the 302 may have been a derivative of the Avon 210 but there were enough differences between the two units to keep thrust 2's Engineers busy modifying the layout of components in the car and fitting an air start start unit to the new engine meanwhile a model of the car had undergone transonic testing in the Wind Tunnel shortly afterwards came a phone call from John akroy had this amazing conversation John would always talk like this this amazing conversation he said so I said fine what what tell me what's happened he said well it's the windol people at at waybridge they were very very negative when we took the model out very they like the model beautifully made and everything else but they were very very negative they said it's just not going to work however they had said that they would do it and so rather um grudgingly they put put in the transonic tunnel and they came back to John and said look John we we really just can't explain this we really can't but this thing's actually very good it shouldn't be it really shouldn't be but um yeah I fig a show it should do 650 miles and a half and John said do you realize we've got a record breaker I said my God that's fantastic let's get on with it with its now familiar shape complete and new more powerful engine installed thrust 2 was flown to Bonville in September 1981 and then we were on the hallowed bful sof fls it was fantastic but of course we were in for a horrible experience a really truly horrible experience and the fundamental thing was that the the wheels didn't work so if you can imagine there am I I'm I'm confident we've got the British land speed record we're used to banging this thing up to 260 mil hour banging out the parachute Etc and now we're just going to get a bit faster and um so I'm being towed out to one end of the bonable Salt Flats to run make that first run and the steering doesn't appear to work it's just as if the steering isn't even connected and so we get to the far end I said John you know John we have enormous problems here we really do the steering just does not work John was saying it's perfectly all right Richard we've designed it we know it's going to work we've worked done all the sums on it's going to be fine so I um got going off the line and I got up to about I know 75 or 80 miles an hour and the car just went sideways I oh Christ how the hell are we going to do this so we go back again and we get another run at 175 miles an hour and the car drifts straight off into the desert um so I go two miles into the Desert Off The Track realizing we've got a serious problem here we can't do this and gradually trying a bit of this and a bit of that and modifying the driving procedure and everything we gradually get it up to high speeds um it's it's quite a frightening experience actually because the car goes like this all the time laterally and you don't know you know that if it goes too far that way the wind the the oncoming air flow will just turn it sideways and the air goes over the top and it flies upwards that's the accident and uh how far can you go how far can you let it go you know we don't know so um anyhow we get a bit better and we get into 200s and then we get the 300s and then I take John for a 400 mph run and we're not using the After Burner I'm worried about the afterburner I'm worried that this is going to destabilize the whole car and uh you know we better see how far we can get without the after bur and then we're trying a turnround the first time we're trying a turn R because the turn R means that you know you've got to turn the car around refuel it set it back all within the r and this is tough this is really tough there's a lot of work work to do and you know all the parachutes have to be reloaded and they have to be rearmed the field it's got to be refueled everything's got to be inspected and it was such a chaotic mess the whole thing and I was just simply so angry and um so basically this time the After Burner fuse was in so I banged it into After Burner we went straight up to 500 Miles hour brilliant absolutely fantastic and the car suddenly was in its element the whole thing had come together there am I zapping down the track at over 500 Miles hour and uh the um we're getting knocked around quite a lot because the the track itself is very rutted now because of our wheels and um basically it disconnects the battery battery disconnects the fuel pumps uh shut down and suddenly we're out of power but we average 447 and that was terrific oh we can do it we can do it we've just got to get this right now we can do it and um then of course it rains at night and the place floods and that's it we got to go home and then of course the fun really starts because we come home and we're a failure basically the media says you're a failure it didn't achieve it every all this PR and everything else we gave you the opportunity and you screwed it but we didn't screw it we got 500 miles an hour it was only the peak speed of course but nevertheless 500 is 500 on its return from the US thrust 2 needed work the Bonville salt had found its way into every corner of the car and panels were starting to lift where corrosion had started back on the a of white the jet car was stripped down rebuilt and repainted on June the 16th 1982 thrust 2 was again at greenham common for Shakedown runs which resulted in John akroy signing the car off it was finally ready for its return to Bonville Noble suggested he make one more run to which akroy reluctantly agreed in the passenger seat would be parachute specialist Mike Barrett who wanted to experience the effects of the shoots firsthand as they slowed the car from 220 mph with each test run over in seconds the team used the Jaguar fire Chase as a marker beside the runway Noble would accelerate at maximum power until he reached the bright red car then shut the engine down and uh the team said look I'm sorry Richard but what's actually happened is jago's out of fuel we can't actually put it there and um so we're going to change it and we're going to put Mike's um Ranger over there which is a brown color so I said fine and I thought nothing of it this was stupid I thought nothing it's my mistake the fire Chase was refueled and placed on standby John Griffiths was its driver that day I was sitting in fire Chase which is the Jaguar v12 Saloon adapted as a high-speed fire engine and I was using it as the rapid interv vention driver and we were backed up a few yards on a mid Runway access road so uh great one more not nice run we'll bang up to uh 200 and something miles an hour and just we're also using um our ex military brake shoots which aren't as good as our High Performance brake shoots so um off we went down the wrong way and all's going well and where the hell's the jagu I can't see the jagu where's the jagu for chist thing and Jager isn't there of course because it's been replaced by the range River but I'd forgotten that so I'm past the range River my brother Andrews in the range he's absolutely horrified the car's still accelerating hard up to over 300 miles hour we watched horrified as Richard fired the shoots and and they instantly shredded I Richard had fired them later and going a lot faster than ever intended uh and uh now then it suddenly Dawns on me we we've got a crisis on our hands and we were then into braking I then tried to shut the engine down I don't think I succeeded in shutting the engine down so I think we still had some residual thrust um and we were peaked out at well over 300 miles now I have no idea what speed it was but it was blly fast R in the runway is coming out fast as are um there's a huge great hole in the ground to the far end and we're going to be in huge trouble so uh we've got 4,000 fet of skid marks I remember throwing fire Chas into gear screeching around onto the runway and giving Chase and I tell you it's utterly sicking to see and while we were still a long way back and there was thrust hurtling towards the end of the runway and we watched thrust come off the Runway onto the grass and start curving left into light Woodland and it was throwing up an ever increasing tornado like plume of grass Earth stones and Heaven only knows what else somehow miraculously Richard had managed a trajectory you could hardly call it staring through the trees without hitting them and somehow I managed to get it stopped and uh Mike's out he's okay I'm out I'm okay with the front of the car smashed in and the uh and of course all the Deb has gone through the engine and there literally sort of two or three hours before John had signed off to get to America and I'd wrecked it God what a what a moment Richard all of us really were silent just devastated by the mess oh my God uh the complete loss of um confidence and face and everything everything went out the window and all the sponsorship side of it went out the window as well um because obviously I got to get another engine from somewhere and we tried to get another engine and rroy said they wanted 80,000 quid to rebuild our engine and then the somebody else had an a suitable engine but no they wanted so much money and the Goodwill had gone we' just killed it we it was just as if we'd had the chance and we'd blend it coming up in the final part of the thrust two story Rolls-Royce perform a miracle thrust 2 Finds Its natural home Richard Noble comes within 7 mph of disaster and project thrust finally delivers the record see you next time the first year was up and this was the time where we got to renegotiate this guy was a obviously a mighty power and it was a big Power office and I was amazed I walked in looked around and there's pictures of this guy shaking hands with with famous conductors classical music conductors there wasn't a picture or a model of an airplane in sight and so he sat me down he said right well that's the end of this and so I said well I'm very sorry about that why is that well as you know we we did a year on it and I said it's been very successful you've done J we moved all these thousands of people through the through the how he said I'm cancelling so I said you've got to give me two weeks and the guy said well I I'm canceling your contract well why two weeks well it G me two weeks to get an orchestra together God he didn't know what to say he was absolutely lost uh he he thought I was taking the piss out of him which of course I was
