The British team behind the project to produce a 1,000-mph car has cleared a key obstacle with a successful test of the rocket this past week.
The new Thrust SSC "rocket-car" will be paired up a fighter jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon on a Bloodhound supersonic car in an attempt to destroy the world land speed record.
The test-firing lasted only a matter of seconds, but being able to produce a flame from the rocket fixed test rig in a bomb-prof military shed in England is being considered a huge success. It was the largest rocket firing in the U.K. in the last 20 years.
The team said that with the positive result, they can now focus on the next step of production.
"That's exactly what I was hoping to see," said Andy Green, the Royal Air Force fighter pilot who will sit in the driving seat for the record bid to NBC News. "That was a hugely successful, very, very important experiment for us."
To make the revolutionary vehicle, he team had to bring the three main components together; a tank containing rocket fuel, a Cosworth Formula One engine, and a Falcon Hybrid rocket. The rocket produced 14,200 pounds of thrust with the engine running at over 16,000 revolutions per minute.
The team is hoping to conclude tests by the end of 2013, and go for the 1,000 mph record in South Africa's Northern Cape region in 2014. It anticipates reaching this speed in less than 45 seconds and within a 6.5 mile radius from the starting point.
The record of 763 mph was set 15 years ago by the same team. Green became the first person to break the sound barrier on land in the ThrustSSC in 1997.
Many of the camera feeds and instruments used by the media were disrupted due to the noise level.
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