Speed king Richard Noble aims to smash the sound barrier on land with the world's fastest car - but he'll need the world's biggest inflatable garage to do it.
The 51-year-old land speed record holder is heading a team which is determined to be the first to reach 750mph on the ground, but he needs something to protect the Thrust Supersonic Car so his top class engineers can work on it day and night next to the US desert plain where he hopes to make history this September.
An American team will try desperately to beat the British into the record books when the two cars meet head-to-head at Black Rock desert in Nevada, but West Yorkshire firm Aireshelta has given Scots-born Mr Noble and his driver, RAF Fighter pilot Andy Green, a vital edge.
For 40-year-old managing director Richard Bailey has designed a massive 6Oft by 25ft heavy duty PVC garage that takes a mere 15 minutes to inflate and the team will test both the car and the Aireshelta in Jordan throughout May.
And Mr Noble is delighted.
"It looks good. God, it looks good," he said, staring at the huge cream-coloured building. "It means we can work on the car more and run it more. It puts us ahead of the opposition. The Americans only have an awning for their car.
"If Thrust succeeds, it'll be a showpiece for British engineering and could have one hell of an impact on British exports.
"Breaking the sound barrier on land will be seen in the same league as putting a man on the moon. It's one of the last great challenges. Grannies now sit knitting on Concorde as it goes through the sound barrier. But a man driving a car at the same speed - well, that's just something else."
Richard Noble drove to glory in 1983 when he set the current land speed record at 633mph.
But the pressure of spearheading the ThrustSSC project means Squadron Leader Green will be behind the wheel this time.
And the 35-year-old has nerves of steel.
When asked if he has sleepless nights, cold sweats or an overpowering sense of fear at the thought of hurtling along in a seat lodged between two engines cannibalised from a Phantom jet fighter, he defiantly replied: "No, no and no."
The ThrustSSC team first came across the Aireshelta - an invention featured on top tv science programme Tomorrow's World - when they were testing the car in the searing heat of the Jordanian desert last November.
They realised they were wasting hours every day loading the lO-tonne, 52ft-long monster car on and off its trailer and towing it 12 miles each night to the nearest town, Al Jafr.
To make matters worse, Thrust then developed a major suspension fault during a 300mph test run and engineers needed to spend countless hours carrying out emergency repairs - so they sent an urgent SOS to Aireshelta for help.
The Huddersfield company - which usually supplies all sizes of inflatable buildings to the emergency services and armed forces - immediately sprang into action and had Thrust under cover within 48 hours.
Thrust engineering manager Peter Ross, 35, said: "The Aireshelta's thick air insulation kept the car cool in the fierce daytime heat and warm during the bitterly cold nights out on the desert."
And he revealed that sand storms are so violent, tiny grains as fine as face powder are blasted into buildings in Jordan - sometimes it's so bad that people sitting in the same offlce can't see one another.
But the Aireshelta, which can withstand 100mph winds, has been specially designed to keep the sand well away from Thrust's huge twin Rolls Royce engines.
Mr Bailey said: "It was quite a challenge making such a massive inflatable building. The Thrust project relies on the British inventive spirit to succeed. If Richard Noble breaks the sound barrier, Britain will once again be regarded as one of the world's pioneering countries - and rightly so."
And Mr Noble is clearly relishing the prospect of beating the Yanks in their own backyard. "It'll be a war of attrition," he said, not trying too hard to keep the smile from his face.
For more information please contact Managing Director Richard Bailey:
Aireshelta Ltd, Jubilee Works, 10 Dale Street, Longwood, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD3 4TG. Tel: +44 (0)1484 646559 Fax: +44 (0)1484 644450 Email: Richard@airshel.demon.co.uk
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