Hutt firms help jump start JetBlack land speed record bid

The fastest vehicle Richard Nowland has ever steered was a Formula Ford.  He got up to 150 km/h during a morning training session on a race track.

But by the end of next year, he hopes to be sitting in a sleek purpose-built racer alongside a jet engine from an RAF bomber.  On a salt lake in the "middle of nowhere" in Australia, his goal is to go as fast as 1050kph (about 650mph).

He's already calling his 'car' Jetblack.

What really delights Richard is the number of fellow Kiwis and businesses who, instead of scoffing at his dream, catch his passion and invest their talent.

"These land speed records always seem to be done by British and American teams," he says.  "But I reckon this is the perfect country in the world to have a go, due to our spirit and our adventurous nature.

"There are all these businesses here that you hardly hear about, doing amazing things.  I guess we just don't know our own strength."

At a project launch function at TheNewDowse on 30 October, Richard will have on display the jet engine as he acknowledges those who have already helped him, and seeks to get more on board.

It's not as if the Wadestown resident has any sort of racing or engineering pedigree.  His work has been in hotel management and real estate development.  But he's long had a hankering for "something challenging, with a bit of adventure thrown in as well".

In 2000, the year after he finished high school, Richard remembers seeing a television programme about Thrust SSC, the Richard Noble-led project that three years earlier saw a supersonic car rocket across Nevada desert land to achieve a speed of 1,228 km/h (763mph) to be the first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrier.  With footage shot from a mircolight above, "the image just stuck in my mind," Richard says.

In Richard's sights is the NZ land speed record of 348km/h (216mph), set by Owen Evans in a powerful Porsche, his semi-paralysed arm from an earlier accident ‘set' in position to steer. He'd also like to crack the Aussie record held by Rosco McGlashan (498mph - or just over 800km/h).

Richard's first scheme was to put a truck turbo unit in some sort of motorbike but he soon realised it would be under-powered for what he had in mind. 

He needed a jet engine and went shopping on-line.  In June last year, he put in what he thought was a "cheeky" bid in a UK auction of ex-RAF engines.  He ended up with two of them.  They were "surprisingly inexpensive".

One was described as ‘serviceable', the other ‘repairable'. The pair of Rolls Royce Avon 206 units are now sitting in a Seaview warehouse. The one he'll use (the other will be for parts) is from an RAF English Electric ‘Canberra' bomber. It boasts 11,250 pounds of thrust, "or in language more people will understand, 22,000 horsepower".

Jetblack will be a ‘car' in the sense that it has brakes, suspension and a steering wheel. "But that's where comparisons with a car stop, really," Richard says.

He realised that to reach the speeds he envisions, Jetblack needs to be purpose-designed and built. After getting advice from none other than Richard Noble of the British Thrust SS2 project, Richard put a job ad on TradeMe for an engineering/electrics expert. That's how he hooked up with Cosmas Pagwiwoko, an Indonesian living in Palmerston North. Richard says Cosmas bring three key ingredients: huge enthusiasm, a sharp mind (he's carried out research on artificial heart valves) and connections with Canterbury University's world-leading ‘super computer' Blue Fern. The pair decided to base JetBlack's design on Thrust SSII, but improve the aerodynamics. Various configurations are now being put through Blue Fern.

Richard is delighted with the encouragement he's received from others.  Take sponsor Martin Simpson from Wingate's Fraser Engineering Group, for example.  He's agreed to produce the precision-machined suspension, axle and hub components.  Jetblack will ride on 30-inch diameter solid aluminium wheels - aerospace grade.  The Hutt firm will make them.

Petone-based Racetech is coming on board with seats, helmets and harnesses.  "(Owner) David (Black) just loves to see these sorts of things happen."

From a "meeting with a guy in a cafe", software experts InterCad started lending its expertise. Others have helped with design of a logo and a website (www.jetblack.co.nz).

John Ackroyd, designer of ThrustII and a man who helped design Richard Branson's round-the-world balloons, is giving design help.

Richard's timetable now looks like this: final aerodynamic work done by the end of this year.  Construction start early next year.  First speed attempt on South Australia's salt Lake Gairdner - its flat runs 15 times longer than the famous US Bonneville track - by the end of 2009.

The plan at present is for Richard to drive.  "I don't necessarily have a speed wish," he says, "but I love a challenge."

He says he joked around with another Kiwi entrepreneur Glenn Martin, inventor of the one-person Jetpack flight unit.  "We both reckoned each other's project was the more dangerous."

But that's the thing, Richard says. ‘Kiwis will give it a go."