BIG WHEELS OVERSEER

The Record Run

(note - the picture is actually at the Salt Flats, I don't have any of the Black Rock run - forgive me)

Black Rock, Nevada, Sunday, October 27th. After four days of rain, the sun once again bakes the surface of the desert. At 1:27 PM, Craig Breedlove takes Spirit of America on a perfect run to 562 miles an hour. The record now seems within easy reach - only eighty miles an hour away. Weather forecasters predict that Monday will bring calm winds and mild temperatures; but satellites also detect winter storms poised to sweep across Nevada. There will be one day, and one day only, to set the record.

At 7:30 AM on Monday morning, an ambulance proceeds across the lake bed without raising dust. It is below zero. Ice crystals sheen the desert surface. Team engineer Walt Sheehan is in a pickup truck with the heater blowing across sheets of graph paper on which he has plotted a curve that predicts Spirit's speed at various distances. He is concerned with such matters as engine thrust and aerodynamic drag, but what most occupies his mind is the car's aerodynamic balance. The team has retained the wing settings that worked at 562 miles an hour, but how will they perform in the transonic zone?

Spirit's first record run is defeated when the afterburner, a device that increases power by injecting fuel into the car's fiery exhaust, does not light. At the east end of the track, The car is turned around. Sheehan increases fuel pressure to coax the burner to function.

At 11:45 AM, as Craig straps into Spirit's cockpit, the radio crackles, a report from the west end of the track: "You have a wind of one five down the course."

Someone says, "does that mean fifteen knots or only one and a half?"

The radio, which has been cutting out all day, remains silent. The wind is still at this end of the track so the crew assumes a knot and a half of head wind. Perfect conditions.

At 11:54 AM, the car explodes down the desert leaving a stream of dust and flame. Entering the flying mile, Spirit strays slightly to the left of the course. Craig corrects. Suddenly, the car swerves right, lifts its right wheel 45 degrees and veers sharply off the track. In the cockpit, Breedlove fights to regain control, battling forces in excess of six Gs - six times the force of gravity. With hands as heavy as lead, he reaches for the fuel cutoff switch.

From the air, a spotter plane radios that the car is out of control, that it's sliding on its side, that Craig appears to be having difficulty shutting down the engine. The pilot watches helplessly as Spirit completes the world's fastest U-turn and heads back the way she had come. He sees Craig deploy Spirit's parachute. This time, it works.

Later, on-board computers revealed that Spirit of America was going 675 miles an hour when Craig lost control. Had she continued on course, Craig would have broken Noble's record.

It's still too early to tell what caused the accident. Perhaps local shock waves, forming on the rear wings, disturbed the car's delicate aerodynamic balance. Some observers saw a puff of dust under the car's rear wings. A pressure reversal may have occurred beneath the car. Craig is certain the after burner produced excessive much thrust which caused him to modulate the throttle. This may have destabilized his rocketing machine. Haste is one certain culprit. With only one day to set the record, the team abandoned its cautious plan of incremental speed increases. And there's one other thing: the wind speed just before Craig launched was fifteen knots - one-five, not one point five. When Craig discovered that particular error he said, "I would never have launched if I'd known that. Wind - that's the most basic taboo of all."

The team has now returned to their base in California to ponder and to rebuild. In the Fall of 1997, they will return, but it's almost certain that this time Spirit will share the desert with a hostile camp. On November 12th, at Al Jafr, Jordan, Thrust SSC achieved a top speed of 331 miles an hour followed by a problem with her rear wheel steering system. Flooding of the desert caused the English team to abort further runs. But according to Noble, Thrust will be ready to directly challenge Spirit of America at Black Rock when the land speed course opens on September 2nd. Always the master of sound bites, he calls it "the world's fastest automobile race."

This bloke said he is sixty years old, diabetic and only has one eye, but reckons he has a remarkably strong neck. I believe him.