Land Speed Record cars out of 60's fighters.

[proditor]

I had a lot of fun getting this together for the Old Kit Group Build. Below is the story and a quick pic. The rest of the progress is over here: http://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php/topic,42837.0.html

Lake Eyre Australia, 1966

As the race to the moon continued between the two super powers, a far more intense, but local race was brewing in the deserts of central Australia. Prompted by the call to greatness, and buoyed by the recent success of Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America - Sonic 1, the United States drunk on success, boldly announced that next they'd knock off the Mach One barrier on the ground. Everyone on the world stage looked around for a moment, then back at America, and started laughing. Mach One? On the ground? Insanity.

Of course America basically said "Hold my drink, I got this." and promptly set the US Air Force to the task of devising the record breaking car. Not to be outdone, the Soviets announced that they too would be breaking the Mach One barrier, and they'd end up being faster than the Americans! The British sniffed politely once, then nodded and said "Right, well let's have a go if you think you're hard enough" and threw their hat in the ring as well.

It took the better part of 1965 just settling on the locale. The Salt Flats in Bonneville were ideal, but also, in America, and the Soviets protested. Eventually they settled on Lake Eyre after ruling out Verneuk Pan in South Africa due to the extreme amount of work that would have been required to clear the area of large rocks.

As 1966 began, all three teams arrived in the deserts of Australia and wondered exactly what they had gotten themselves into. Isolated and alone with only military air drops for emergency resupply, and a once a month cargo train out of Adelaide, the teams began to find common ground. The spirit of competition was still fierce, and those first few months were tense as each team began practice runs. Each nation had decided that the quickest way to get something to go faster than the speed of sound, was to start with something that had already done it, albeit in the air. The yanks chose the F-104 Starfighter with a redesigned wing that acted as an axle support for the titanium wheels that would propel the car at breakneck speeds. The Russians chose the Mig-21, and the Brits, the BAC Lightning. Each plane was a monster of speed in the air, now they would have the chance to be so again on the ground.

The first prize was the Land Speed Record itself, and the Soviets struck first. Abandoning the Tumansky afterburning engine, they instead opted for a four rocket configuration. Even some ignition issues weren't sufficient to keep the car from blasting through 600 mph. The promise of the Mig, named the "Roaring Mouse" seemed prodigious, and the Americans and British labored mightily to work out the final kinks in their more refined craft and get them on the flats.

Over the rest of the year, the title of Land Speed Record holder changed hands at least a dozen times as the cars shot across the salt flats. 600 mph gave way to 625m, then 650, then 700, until on June 7th 1966, the American Anthem (Unofficial nickname: Stars and Bars) broke the speed of sound. The record of 773.27 mpg lasted for 4 days, when it was snagged by the Britannia as it passed through 780.

A lot has been written about the contest, and the greater conflict the revolved around it, about the swaggering of nations, and the push to break a record that had been the province of driven men and women, not nations. But what gets left out a lot, is the attitude near the end. As 1966 moved into its second half, the teams were working solely for themselves, and to a degree, each other. They shared equipment when they could, and helped each other when they couldn't. It was with a large measure of sadness that the teams broke camp in November of 1966, almost a year after they'd arrived.

The set of pictures below captures some of that espirt d'corps as you can see the teams working on their cars for one last run in November.

[Ify]

Very interesting story, and well done job on the models.