The Thrust story continues …
We know about setting outright land speed records – we’ve set four at 633.468mph with Thrust2, 714.144mph and 763.032mph (Mach 1.02) with ThrustSSC, and 350.092mph with JCB Dieselmax.
However, back in 2020, we acknowledged that we knew very little about setting records on water.
Inspired by the exploits of Speed King John Cobb and his designer Reid Railton, our initial intent was to find out what Railton’s follow up design to the Crusader jet boat might have done. We went as far building a large scale remote control model to prove that it could plane, was controllable and fast.
Only 14 teams have officially tried to break the WSR with 6 pilots (plus a riding mechanic) dying in the process. With a fatality rate close to 50% it would therefore be foolish in the extreme to do anything other than to proceed with maximum research and risk mitigation efforts. To help us produce a truly innovative design we have access to advanced technologies and resources not available to earlier challengers. Only when we have finished the research and completed our analysis will we go ahead with the build program.
The current WSR of 317.596mph was set by Australian Ken Warby back in 1978. That the record has stood for so long indicates both the danger and the difficulty involved in mounting a challenge. Since that record was set, two other challengers – Lee Taylor and Craig Arfons have died in the process
Join us to follow our research and testing programme to determine whether we can attempt to add the outright water speed record to the Thrust programme’s list of achievements. It’s the most difficult and dangerous record of all so success is not guaranteed – but that’s part of the challenge.
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