The Aviation Society: Wing Commander Andy Green
Tuesday, 20th November 2012
The Aviation Society was very fortunate to be able to welcome Wing Commander Andy Green to its first meeting of the half. Andy spoke to the Society on the world land speed record, which he set 15 years ago and which still stands today, as well as the Bloodhound SSC project, which is currently being built-its completion is planned for next year. He started his talk by going through the history of the land speed record and explaining how some of the rules set in the past are unrealistic in the modern day. He also sounded a patriotic note with his observation that the British have historically been very good at land speed records-theyhave held the record for longer then all the other nations put together!
Andy then moved onto Thrust SSC, the car he used to set the current record in 1997. He described in detail the aluminium wheels and also went into depth on how a 1 degree angle of attack upwards or downwards can effect a car going at the planned 1000 mph. He also explained some of the forces acting on the car at such high speeds, such as the tension in the wheels. Andy's description of his current project, Bloodhound SSC, was also incredibly interesting, not least because he showed us some recent video footage of testing that they have been doing. Overall, the talk was exciting and highly informative and will no doubt have inspired some future engineers in the young audience.
Seb Lawson (PJMcK)
