Some people are driven to live life to the extreme, and British Royal Air Force fighter pilot Andy Green is certainly one such person. Green is aiming to break his own world land speed record in October 2017 by driving a British supersonic land vehicle called Bloodhound SSC. The goal is to reach 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h), shattering Green’s own 1997 record of 763 mph (1,228 km/h) -- which was the first time a car broke the sound barrier. If he is successful in 2017, Green will have broken the land speed record by an astounding margin of 33%.
The pencil-shaped Bloodhound SSC will be powered by both a jet engine and a rocket engine. It is expected to travel a mile in just 3.6 seconds.
Fast, faster, fastest:
- To slow the vehicle, Wing Commander Green will deploy air brakes at 800 mph (1,300 km/h), parachutes at 600 mph (965km/h) and disc brakes, used below 250 mph (400 km/h).
- As he decelerates, Green will experience a force of up to 3g -- basically, three times the force of Earth's gravity.
- The land speed record is the speed attained over two runs, in opposite directions, within one hour. A new record mark must exceed the previous one by a margin of at least one percent.