Andy Green's diary

Every month, driver Andy Green writes his diary page bringing the project up to date from his perspective, and looking forward to what is planned next on the way to breaking the World Land Speed Record

Andy Green’s Diary – April 2013

Tuesday, 30 April, 2013

Project Bloodhound is about more than just building the world’s first 1000 mph Car (impressive though that will be). Our long-term legacy is the Bloodhound Education Programme, which continues to go from strength to strength. Our latest schools competition is the chance to design the colour scheme for my helmet. I’ve got 2 helmets so we’re going to pick 2 winners, one from the UK and one from South Africa. The winners will get a schools visit from Bloodhound, plus a chance to come and see the Car run for themselves. The competition closes on 10 May, so there’s still time to enter. if you’re quick.

Andy Green’s Diary – March 2013

Wednesday, 27 March, 2013

Some breaking news this month. We’ve been working on timings for the final build of Bloodhound SSC for a couple of months now, to see if it is practical to get out there by the end of this year. With some 200 technical partners, product sponsors and suppliers to include in the planning, it’s a wide-ranging conversation! We have also had to take into account the weather in the Northern Cape in South Africa, where we are going to run. The rainy season stretches from about November through to April, so the weather could stop us running during that period.

So here’s the new plan that we’re now going to deliver – we will be test-running the EJ200 jet engine in the Car in October of this year (our fifth Birthday: how time flies when you’re building a 1000 mph Car), followed by runway testing at the start of 2014 and then off to South Africa around Easter next year.

Andy Green’s Diary – February 2013

Wednesday, 27 February, 2013

As a Royal Air Force Fighter Pilot, I like to think that I’ve got a reasonable understanding of aircraft and how they work. However, the more time I spend on Bloodhound, the more I learn about just how amazing airplanes, and fast jets in particular, really are. Bloodhound SSC is aiming to do over 1000 mph, which is faster than any aircraft – even the Royal Air Force’s latest Typhoon fighter – can travel at ground level. If we’re going to go that fast, then we’ve got to do this better than any aeroplane, and that’s a huge task.

Andy Green’s Diary – January 2013

Monday, 21 January, 2013

One of the great things about working on Bloodhound is that we all share in the ‘Engineering Adventure’. Our long-term aim is to inspire a generation of young people about the magic of science and technology. In the meantime, while they are learning about Bloodhound technology, I get to learn a huge amount about it as well – and it’s fascinating.

Andy Green Diary December 2012

Friday, 28 December, 2012

Just back from Los Angeles, where I went to launch a film in Hollywood. OK, so the film was only 3 minutes long, but still, I can claim a Hollywood film launch! The ‘Future of Speed’ was made in a Bentley Mulsanne at 190 mph on Bonneville Salt Flats (and at 190 mph, 3 minutes is a long time).

Andy Green’s Diary – November 2012

Friday, 30 November, 2012

Following last month’s hugely successful rocket firing, we’ve been thrilled by the very high levels of international interest. In the first 48 hours, we ran over 300,000 pages on our website and over 6 million views on YouTube. I can’t wait to see what happens when we start running live video from the Car next year....

Andy Green Diary – October 2012

Monday, 5 November, 2012

It worked – and how! Firing our hybrid rocket in public this month, with a huge international media presence and a global on-line audience, not to mention a number of our supporters’ club Gold Members, was a little nerve-wracking. This is what we had promised from day one – an Engineering Adventure that everyone could share in ...

Andy Green’s Diary – September 2012

Thursday, 27 September, 2012

The secret’s out now – we’re planning on our first UK hybrid rocket firing on 3 October. I have to confess to being slightly nervous about the event. It’s all very well us running the world’s largest ‘Engineering Adventure’, promising to share all of the data as we go, and promising to conduct

Andy Green’s Diary – August 2012

Tuesday, 28 August, 2012

I’ve just had a very odd experience – someone’s sent me a video of myself appearing on Foreign Secretary William Hague’s Facebook page. To try and explain this rather strange event, I’ll start with my recent visit to the BLOODHOUND track in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

Andy Green’s Diary – July 2012

Friday, 27 July, 2012

The aerodynamic refinement of the world’s first 1000 mph Car continues. The computational fluid dynamics work at Swansea University is giving us more data on the (now fixed) shape of BLOODHOUND SSC. Fir

Andy Green’s Diary – June 2012

Saturday, 30 June, 2012

Richard Noble has just returned from South Africa, where he’s been catching up on the desert preparation and finalising some new sponsorship for our 1000 mph record attempt. The Northern Cape Government team is doing a fantastic job of clearing the world’s best race track for BLOODHOUND – after

Andy Green’s Diary – May 2012

Friday, 25 May, 2012

In last month’s BLOODHOUND diary I outlined the various methods we have for stopping the world’s first 1000 mph Car – airbrakes, drag parachutes and

The Bloodhound Project Andy Green's diary