inside bloodhound We get a look at the controls of the car Andy Green hopes to take to 1600 kph

On a yet to be specified date in 2016, if all goes to plan, former RAF fighter pilot, part-time Radical racer, world land speed record holder and living, breathing Boy’s Own hero Andy Green will spin up Bloodhound SSC’s eurofighter Typhoon eJ200 jet engine on a 19.2km strip of the Hakskeen Pan desert in South Africa. Just 42 seconds later, with the additional thrust of a Nammo hybrid rocket engine, he’ll become the first man to roll on planet earth at 1600kmph, leaving the dust, the doubts and the journey that has ignited the imagination of the many thousands of school children involved with the open-source project from its 2008 inception to settle in the supersonic wake.

For now, though, Wing Commander Green is happy to be sitting more or less comfortably at the sharp end of the still very much static, early-build phase LSR legend in waiting. Green’s supersonic office was revealed to the world on June 13 at Bloodhound’s Avonmouth base and not just the composite carbonfibre monocoque and special 25mm-thick acrylic canopy windscreen that will have to withstand peak aerodynamic loads of up to three tonnes per square metre and possible bullet-like impacts from any kicked-up debris. Also on show was the cockpit’s fully fitted-out interior, complete down to the last control and digital instrument display flanking the world’s fastest speedo, calibrated to 1760kmph. The 200kg carbon safety cell took more than 10,000 hours to design and build and is bolted directly to the metallic rear chassis that will carry the jet, rocket and the race car engine that acts as a ‘fuel pump’.

Much like Bloodhound itself, the inside of the cockpit is a jet fighter/race car hybrid with banks of angled TFT displays, but backed up by a handsome analogue speedo and stopwatch from Rolex should the electrics fail. The very hi-tech 3d-printed titanium steering wheel is shaped to exactly fit Green’s hands and finger reach, though the triggers on the back of the rim that prime and fire the rocket were taken from domestic power hand drills for their reliable ability to withstand vibration.

In the footwell, there’s a conventional accelerator and a largely redundant brake pedal the parachutes, deployed at 1280kmph, will do most of the stopping. By next year, the makeshift foam seat will have been replaced by a carbonfibre one, again moulded to Green’s body shape to mitigate the effects of the huge G-forces he’ll encounter.