Andy Green | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Andrew Duncan Green |
| Born | 30 July 1962 Atherstone, Warwickshire, England |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service/ |  Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1980 – 2019 |
| Rank | Wing Commander |
| Service number | 5203707F |
| Awards | Officer of the Order of the British Empire |
Wing Commander Andrew Duncan Green OBE [1] is a retired British Royal Air Force fighter pilot and world land speed record holder since 1997, the first land speed record to break the sound barrier.
He was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire. Green's family moved to Hartlepool in the 1970s when his father was appointed chief fire officer of the local fire brigade. [2] Green originally attended High Tunstall School before moving to Marske-by-the-Sea and beginning study at Bydales Comprehensive School. Green later moved to Kent with his family, where he studied at St. Olave's Grammar School in Orpington. While at a car show in Hartlepool at a young age, Green decided that he would be interested in a career within the military. [2]
Green gained an RAF scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1983 with first class honours in mathematics. [3] He qualified as a fighter pilot on F-4 Phantom and Tornado F3 aircraft. In 2003 Green was promoted to Wing Commander. [4] He later became Officer Commanding Operations Wing at RAF Wittering near Peterborough. Green was the captain of the RAF team at the Cresta Run, [5] where he used an experimental French toboggan and held the Inter-Services record for a number of years.
In his capacity as an RAF officer, he has served in West Germany, Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan. [6]
Green is the current holder of the world land speed record, and the only person ever to break the sound barrier on land. On 25 September 1997 in ThrustSSC he beat the previous record in Black Rock Desert, US, reaching a speed of 714.144 miles per hour (1,149.303 km/h). On 15 October 1997, 50 years and 1 day after the sound barrier was broken in aerial flight by Chuck Yeager, Green reached 763.035 miles per hour (1,227.986 km/h), the first supersonic record (Mach 1.016). His call sign was "Dead Dog". As the vehicle exceeded the speed of sound it created a sonic boom.
Green is now working on a new record attempt to break the 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h) mark with Bloodhound LSR . [7]
His next land speed attempt was intended to be for MG in a specially modified MG F called the MG EX255; [8] [9] however, due to the time required for modifications, the project did not finish on time and that attempt never happened.
Since then, Green's most recent challenge was the driving of the JCB Dieselmax car, attempting to take the Diesel Land Speed Record over 300 mph (480 km/h). Having tested the vehicle on his own RAF base, Wittering, on 22 August 2006, he broke the previous record of 236 miles per hour (380 km/h) (set in August 1973), after attaining an average speed of 328.767 miles per hour (529.099 km/h) during two runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Twenty four hours later, Green broke his own record, achieving a speed of 350.092 miles per hour (563.418 km/h) on 23 August 2006.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1998 New Year Honours. [10] He was awarded the Segrave Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club in 1997. In 2006 he was awarded the John Cobb Trophy by the British Racing Drivers' Club for "a success of outstanding character" [11] and an Honorary degree from Staffordshire University in July 2008.
On 14 June 2009 Green gained his first circuit racing experience, whilst raising money for the Bloodhound SSC project, by participating in Round 4 of the Elise Trophy at Snetterton. [12]
Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately 343.2 m/s. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) are often referred to as hypersonic. Flights during which only some parts of the air surrounding an object, such as the ends of rotor blades, reach supersonic speeds are called transonic. This occurs typically somewhere between Mach 0.8 and Mach 1.2.
The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, these effects were seen as constituting a barrier, making faster speeds very difficult or impossible. The term sound barrier is still sometimes used today to refer to aircraft approaching supersonic flight in this high drag regime. Flying faster than sound produces a sonic boom.
The land speed record (LSR) or absolute land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. By a 1964 agreement between the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), respective governing bodies for racing in automobiles and motorcycles, both bodies recognise as the absolute LSR whatever is the highest speed record achieved across any of their various categories. While the three-wheeled Spirit of America set an FIM-validated LSR in 1963, all subsequent LSRs are by vehicles in FIA Category C in either class JE or class RT.
ThrustSSC, Thrust SSC or Thrust SuperSonic Car is a British jet car developed by Richard Noble, Glynne Bowsher, Ron Ayers, and Jeremy Bliss. Thrust SSC holds the world land speed record, set on 15 October 1997, and driven by Andy Green, when it achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) and it became the first and only land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier.
Thrust2 is a British-designed and -built jet-propelled car, which held the world land speed record from 4 October 1983 to 25 September 1997.
The Budweiser Rocket is an American 3-wheeled land vehicle, generally resembling the 1970-era Blue Flame land speed record holding vehicle in appearance, powered by a hybrid liquid and solid-fuel rocket engine with an extra booster from a Sidewinder missile, that has been claimed as being the first vehicle to have broken the sound barrier on land. The original forerunner to the vehicle was the "SMI Motivator" which was damaged badly enough to require a replacement, which in time was called the "Budweiser Rocket".
John Rhodes Cobb was an early to mid 20th century English racing motorist. He was three times holder of the World Land Speed Record, in 1938, 1939 and 1947, set at Bonneville Speedway in Utah, US. He was awarded the Segrave Trophy in 1947. He was killed in 1952 whilst piloting a jet powered speedboat attempting to break the World Water Speed Record on Loch Ness water in Scotland.
Royal Air Force Elvington or more simply RAF Elvington is a former Royal Air Force station which operated from the beginning of the Second World War until 1992 located at Elvington, Yorkshire, England. It is now the location of the Yorkshire Air Museum.
Pendine Sands is a 7-mile (11 km) beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches west to east from Gilman Point to Laugharne Sands. The village of Pendine is close to the western end of the beach.
The Green Monster was the name of several vehicles built by Art Arfons and his half brother Walt Arfons. These ranged from dragsters to a turbojet-powered car which briefly held the land speed record three times during 1964 and 1965.
Bonneville Speedway is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The JCB Dieselmax is a streamliner car designed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record for a diesel-engined vehicle.
Rosco McGlashan OAM is an Australian drag racing record-holder, who currently holds the Australian land speed record at 500 mph (802.6 km/h). This record was set on the 27 March 1994 on the dry salt flats of Lake Gairdner, South Australia, 440 km (270 mi) northwest of Adelaide.
The British land speed record is the fastest land speed achieved by a vehicle in the United Kingdom, as opposed to one on water or in the air. It is standardised as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions.
Bloodhound LSR, formerly Bloodhound SSC, is a British land vehicle designed to travel at supersonic speeds with the intention of setting a new world land speed record. The arrow-shaped car, under development since 2008, is powered by a jet engine and will be fitted with an additional rocket engine. The initial goal is to exceed the current speed record of 763 mph (1,228 km/h), with the vehicle believed to be able to achieve up to 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h).
Verneukpan is a widespread dry salt pan south of Kenhardt, between Swartkop and Diemansput in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Verneuk is Afrikaans for to trick, mislead, screw or swindle. The pan is used for aerotowing operations. During the rainy seasons many birds flock to the pans, when they contain water. The surface is completely flat, and is approximately 57 kilometres (35 mi) long and 11 kilometres (7 mi) wide.
Jarvis & Sons Limited were South London-based motor dealers for Morris and MG, and latterly coachworks providing special bodies for various car chassis until after World War II.
William Walter "Bill" Warner was an American motorcycle racer who set a land speed record on a conventional motorcycle in 2011. He was killed in a motorcycle racing crash in 2013.
Land speed racing is a form of motorsport.