28 Years Ago, a Car Broke the Sound Barrier
This page is translated from the original post "Il y a 28 ans, une voiture passait le mur du son" in French.
- 15/10/2025 8:26
On October 15, 1997, an unprecedented event marked the history of automotive speed.
That day, Thrust SSC (SuperSonic Car) became the first car, or rather the first land vehicle, to break the sound barrier, reaching 1,227.985 km/h (Mach 1.016) in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. At the controls was British pilot Andy Green, a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot, who entered the legend.
This technological marvel measured 16.5 meters long, weighed 10.5 tons, and was powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey 202 turbojets, derived from the Phantom F4 fighter-bomber. Together, they produced over 110,000 horsepower. An immense power, entirely dedicated to achieving a dream: crossing the symbolic sound barrier on four wheels.
And Thrust SSC broke the sound barrier
The project, initiated by Richard Noble, who already held a previous record (Thrust 2 in 1983), took more than ten years of preparation, thousands of hours of aerodynamic calculations, and a perfectly flat site capable of supporting supersonic speeds without causing fatal instability. At such speed, the slightest mistake could turn the machine into a jet-powered bomb.
On October 15, 1997, at 10:30 a.m., after two regulated passes, the official average exceeded Mach 1. The sonic boom sounded, and Thrust SSC became the first land vehicle to “break” the sound barrier. An achievement that has still not been surpassed on the road. Only Bloodhound LSR, its spiritual descendant, now attempts to approach 1,300 km/h.
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Twenty-eight years later, this feat remains an absolute milestone in the history of mechanics and speed. It symbolizes the ultimate limit of what human engineering can achieve, where aerodynamics flirt with the impossible.
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