Jeff, I trust you are in college, studying structural engineering or aerodynamics or both!
The assult on the Mach + record will require guys that are those first and a hot rodder second...
Actually...
I've been following aircraft and spacecraft design since I was about 3 years old. I don't have a lot of "technical" knowledge (calculus, etc.), but I know what works and what doesn't. I can typically just look at an aircraft and figure out whether or not it has sufficient control surface area, low speed stability, high speed potential, lift (based on the incidence of the wing, root chord, tip chord, and what not)
I knew the Sonic Arrow was gonna blow over before I ever knew that
it actually blew over. Of all of the contenders out there, I'd say that Noble has the best shot at it right now. Richard has a knack for accomplishing what he set out to do. He's got the engineers, the wind tunnels, the time, the labor, the driver, and the money. The ThrustSSC was a 58'X12' brick, but a brilliantly designed brick. All of the air that hits it
goes somewhere, mainly into the engines.
I don't have computers or wind tunnels or the RAF, but I have a set of french curves and a pad of graph paper. I've come with a few designs of my own, both thrust and wheel driven. I figure that I could get about 550-600 mph out of a wheel-driven turbine, 500-550 out of a piston, and 800 out of a jet or rocket (to start).
There's a few simple solutions for wheel driven cars, actually. They defy tradition, and are thus quite unpopular, but they're feasible and they'll work.