While I have the greatest respect for the breadth and depth of Pork Pie's LSR knowledge, I find his responses to Eric a trifle harsh. Maybe something was lost in translation, but Eric clearly said that absolute record holders from Sonic1 onwards (which for me means Blue Flame, ThrustII and ThrustSSC) were designed by people who were rocket scientists first. While the other cars mentioned by Pork Pie in one of his replies were interesting observations, some predate Sonic 1 while none of the others succeeded in taking the record so they are not covered by Eric's statement.
It's true that Craig favoured empirical development of basic principles rather than relying on detailed aero research (as he often said, bad aero data is worse than no aero data) but even back with Sonic1, he was talking to people and applying aviation aero principles such as area ruling and boundary layer control. And of course, as Eric has already told us, he (presumably because of his aviation background) was Craig's choice to give Sonic Arrow a make-over even before it was sold to Steve Fossett. But let's get back to the 3 cars that are covered by Eric's statement.
Pork Pie asks who had a background in "aeroplane aerodynamics" on the Blue Flame project. Without wishing to be pedantic, Eric said rocket scientist. The project was initiated by Ray Dausman and Dick Keller. I happen to know Dick reasonably well and can tell you that after being fascinated by rocket cars (RAK2 in particular) from an early age, he graduated from Notre Dame and Illinois State University before applying his skills to fundamental and applied research projects for a whole range of people including the US Air Force and NASA. His work covered missiles, satellites and the Saturn rockets. He also carried out a detailed study of gas reactions of methane and oxygen. Mmm - sounds like a rocket scientist to me! His partner Ray Dausman had an equally skilled background and both were joined later by Pete Farnsworth. Dick's role was to coordinate the aerodynamic research and design with Dr Todz and Dr Uzgiri from IIT with additional help from Ohio State University. All designs involve compromises of one kind or another but as Eric says, form should follow function. In the case of Blue Flame, the design evolved quite a bit based on some of the building blocks they started with (tyres - oh, ok, tires and the motor for instance). There were even early iterations of the design using a jet engine although given their 'rocket scientist' background, this was always the way they were destined to go.
I know that John Ackroyd wouldn't describe himself as a rocket scientist but to simply say that he went from Porsche to ThrustII makes light of his previous wide ranging and detailed engineering background which included spells with Cushioncraft on hovercraft design, and Dornier on the very early stages of what was to became the first Airbus. The team included others with a military aviation background and was supported by wind tunnel aero research from British Aerospace. However, the basic design was determined to some extent by the major building block - the engine. This was the only engine powerful enough that Richard could get hold of given his complete lack of funding, so that was where John had to start.
ThrustSSC was in a different league altogether, and I can assure you that given the forces, stresses and strains involved (which are truly staggering to the average car guy at or around Mach1 and beyond) then anybody who tries to go faster than that without either detailed research or input from leading specialists in every area of the vehicle is taking a risk that I wouldn't care to be involved with. Since Sunbeam first put an aero engine in an LSR car back in 1922, there has always been a cross over from aviation to record breaking (and other forms of racing) but in my humble opinion, the key inputs of skills, background and facilities needed to go faster than SSC are likely to come from an aviation background.
This is not a criticism of Craig in any way, but SoA Sonic Arrow in 1997 form was, if you like, the last of the ultimate LSR hot rods built around one man's constantly evolving wealth of knowlege and experience. You can argue until you're blue in face about whether or not it would have got the record with a bit more luck. The fact is that it didn't. Eric and the other aviation aero people tell us that they uncovered 6 potentially fatal flaws. If he means that literally rather than figuratively, then we should all be grateful that Craig's problems stopped him when they did. When Art Arfons saw SSC at Fontwell and then at Black Rock, he got it right when he said that it had taken the LSR well beyond the reach of anything the hot rodding approach could achieve. Which is why Bonneville racing and all it stands for is so important. But that's another story.
Robin
