Low-flying pilot aims to take off

Project Bloodhound is aiming to take former British fighter pilot Andy Green beyond 1620km/h, or upwards of 1000mph.

The Bloodhound team was behind Thrust SCC, the car that broke the sound barrier in 1997. It helped set the land speed record of 1236km/h (763mph).

To achieve Mach 1.4, the team will employ rocket and jet power. The jet, from a Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, nestles just above a rocket, providing a combined thrust of 100,000kW, or 135,000bhp - the equivalent of 180 Formula One engines.

During a run, the car will burn 1.7 tonnes of fuel. The rocket alone guzzles more than a tonne of hydrogen peroxide and its fuel pump is driven by a 560kW V12 from a Superleague Formula racing car.

If it does its job, Green will enter the flying mile after 43sec and at 1030mph. A combination of an air brake, parachutes and carbon-fibre wheel brakes will stop the car.

The team will have an hour to turn it around and complete a run in the opposite direction to break the record.

Green is 47 and admits the decision to drive was not easy.

"If we'd been talking about doing 780mph then I'd have said no, but 1000mph feels like a good reason."

Ron Ayers, the 77-year-old aerodynamics genius behind Thrust SSC, is leading the design process.

Ayers must ensure the car is slippery enough to break the record, while remaining stable and grounded.

"The biggest problem is the shock waves acting on the car when you've broken the sound barrier. The forces on the car are constantly changing."

Leading the project is Britain's Richard Noble, the former land speed record breaker who also led the Thrust team. His vision was to use the project to inspire a new generation of engineers through an in-school education programme.

More than 10 per cent of schools in England and Wales have signed up to follow the project.

"We're not a secretive Formula One team. We can share with everyone exactly what we're doing.

"Young people were inspired by great engineering feats of the past, such as Concorde. We want them to be inspired by this today."

The team will spend the next 18 months building and testing the car before heading to the Hakskeen Pan, in South Africa's Northern Cape, where the run will be held.