The car, Bloodhound, is designed to travel faster than 1,000mph (1,600km/h) " far in excess of the speed of sound and the equivalent of crossing four football pitches every second. The present record of 763mph was set in 1997 by the RAF pilot Andy Green, who will also drive Bloodhound.
The time trial is scheduled for 2011 and will take place in a desert in the Northern Cape of South Africa.
Andy Green: Behind the wheel
I start off by checking everything is running correctly. the computer, the jet engine. I make sure the fuel is flowing smoothly.
As soon as I let the brakes off, I accelerate to 100-150mph, my speed increasing by about 30mph every second. I put the clutch in and the V12 engine starts to pump hydrogen peroxide into the rocket engine.
At about 350mph, I squeeze down the trigger to start the ignition on the rocket, which boosts my acceleration to about 50mph every second — 400mph, 450mph, 500mph. As I pass through the sound barrier I feel a change in the handling but I won’t hear the sonic boom because, at 800mph, I’m travelling faster than sound.
As I approach 1,000mph I shut down the engines one by one, before a rapid deceleration.
At 600mph I let out my first parachute and at 400mph my second. The braking force is about three times that of gravity. I come to a rest after ten miles. The run has taken a total of 100 seconds.
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