Royal Air Force News Friday, November 17, 2023 P7
News
Speed king takes backseat role for Girls allowed Bloodhound bid In Brief
PIONEERING: Attagirl Molly Rose
A NEW private membership club has launched for female aviators. The Attagirls Club aims to bring together like-minded women across the aviation world. The first event is in London with more planned in the Cotswolds, Oxford, Cornwall, Jersey and in other countries, said the club’s creator Paul Olavesen-Stabb. The Attagirls Ball is being planned for autumn 2024 in the Cotswolds, where an award will be presented to a woman who has been a significant influence in the aviation industry during the previous year, he added. The name ‘Attagirls’ refers to the nickname of the young female aviators of the Air Transport Auxiliary (‘ATA’) during WWII.
r e v o s d n a h y d n A t e v RAF s ie t u d g in iv r d d r o c world re WORLD BEATER: Wg Cdr Green is standing down after leading the 15-year Bloodhound mission to smash his own 1997 World Record. Inset left Green with Thrust II
Al pushes on Staff Reporter
ACCOUNTS ACE Alan Cook has launched a cancer crusade – doing 100 push-ups a day in November to raise funds for charity. The RAF High Wycombebased civvie said: “We all know someone who has suffered with cancer. I’m no spring chicken but this is something I thought I could actually do.”
THE TEAM behind the Bloodhound land speed record project have launched a hunt for a new driver after longstanding wheelman RAF combat pilot Andy Green stood down. The 61-year-old veteran was bidding to smash his own record of 763mph, set in 1997 in the jet powered Thrust II. This week the former Phantom and Tornado F3 pilot announced he would be switching to a consultancy role after more than 15 years behind the wheel. The move marks the end of Wg
Cdr Green’s personal mission to break his own speed record which has stood for more than 25 years, making it one of the longest-standing records in history. Launched in 2008 by British engineering maverick Richard Noble, who designed Green’s worldbeating Thrust supersonic car, the Bloodhound was designed to break 1,000mph, using a Typhoon jet engine and hybrid rocket. The project stalled amid funding problems after high-speed testing in South Africa in 2019, where Wg Cdr Green hit more than 600mph across the Hakskeen Pan, a dry lake bed in
the Kalahari desert, pictured above. Now under new management, the team is hoping to exceed 800mph using green fuels to become the first Net Zero world record holders. Bloodhound chief executive Stuart Edmondson said: “As we enter a new chapter of the Bloodhound LSR Project, I am excited about the opportunity and challenges that lie ahead and confident that this will enable us to return to South Africa and set a new record. “With a new driver, along with my aim of not using fossil fuels to set a new FIA Outright World
Land Speed Record, the project promises to be exciting, engaging, and relevant at so many levels.” Bloodhound bosses will be taking their search for a new driver to the British Motor Museum, the South East and London this month, rolling out a replica of the vehicle. Along with a high speed pedigree, candidates for the job will need to deliver significant sponsorship funding. Mr Edmondson added: “We are asking anyone who thinks they have the appropriate financial backing, experience and skills to get in touch through our website.”
Friends reunited after 50 years Jo Lamb
OLD FRIENDS: 102-year-old veteran Jack Hemmings with his Hudson at the RAF Museum
A 102-YEAR-OLD pilot has been reunited with his wartime aircraft for the first time in more than 50 years, to mark Remembrance. Former Sqn Ldr Jack Hemmings finally got up close to the Lockheed Hudson again at the RAF Museum in London. He said seeing the Hudson – the first RAF aircraft to successfully shoot down an enemy Dornier Do18 in the North Sea in October, 1939 at the start of World War II – was ‘just like old times.’ The Pacific Theatre pilot added: “Flying the Hudson was very
comfortable indeed – a nicely balanced aircraft. If you’re going to spend eight hours looking at deadly water, you want to be comfortable.” Jack flew the Lockheed Hudson with 353 Sqn during WWII and received the Air Force Cross while flying. He enjoyed over-the-ropes access to his wartime aircraft at a special event at the museum for Remembrance week. He has continued flying into his centenary, performing aerobatics on his 100th birthday – the oldest British pilot to perform the manoeuvre He was an early pioneer of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), the world’s
largest humanitarian air service. In 2022, Jack returned to the controls of a wooden Miles Gemini aircraft – the same model he flew in 1948 to launch MAF, alongside D-Day landings RAF Engineer Stuart King. Jack’s special fundraising flight raised more than £40,000 in Stuart’s memory for MAF – the charity he describes as ‘the Good Samaritan of the air.’ He added: “Getting into an aeroplane gives a sense of pleasant expectation – I’ve never got into one and regretted it. I love flying because it gives a feeling of detachment from all the problems in the world – and there are a lot of problems.”