They said it couldn't be done. Sceptics warned that as a car approached 750 mph the shock waves generated when it hit the sound barrier would either force it off the ground like an aeroplane or tear it apart. Richard Noble, the modern embodiment of the swashbuckling British speed seeker of yesteryear, was used to that kind of blinkered thinking. He had held the title of The Fastest Man on Earth since 1983, when his Thrust 2 car set a new world land speed record at 633 mph. Critics had argued that he would fail then, too. ...
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They said it couldn't be done. Sceptics warned that as a car approached 750 mph the shock waves generated when it hit the sound barrier would either force it off the ground like an aeroplane or tear it apart. Richard Noble, the modern embodiment of the swashbuckling British speed seeker of yesteryear, was used to that kind of blinkered thinking. He had held the title of The Fastest Man on Earth since 1983, when his Thrust 2 car set a new world land speed record at 633 mph. Critics had argued that he would fail then, too. Noble liked nothing better than a fight. In the late 1990s, as a gripping Anglo-American race began to create the world's first supersonic car, he was determined to achieve this world first for Britain. On 15 October 1997, Noble's Thrust SSC, driven by ice-cool RAF Squadron Leader Andy Green, smashed through the sound barrier to create the first supersonic land speed record at 763 mph. The Thrust SSC team had beaten the Americans, thumbed its nose at the sceptics, and realized what seemed an impossible dream. It was a triumph for British engineering, technology and derring-do. This is Richard Noble's story of his obsession with speed, from his early days with the crude self-built Thrust 1 jet car, to the world beating Thrust 2; from his innovative ARV Super 2 plane to Atlantic Sprinter, his failed attempt to build a record-breaking boat; culminating in Thrust SSC, the fastest car in the world. It is not just a tale of unbroken success but of disappointment and struggle, too - of how Noble risked everything he had to keep the SSC project alive; and of the unentangled human emotions behind one of the greatest engineering achievements of the twentieth century.
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Add this copy of Thrust: the Remarkable Story of One Mans Quest for to cart. $18.26, very good condition, Sold by Greener Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from London, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2012 by Bantam.
Edition:
2012, Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
Publisher:
Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
Published:
10/23/2012
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
17979361548
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Add this copy of Thrust: the Remarkable Story of One Man's Quest for to cart. $42.46, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2012 by Transworld Publishers.
Edition:
2012, Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
