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Lately, all of the absolute land speed record talk that we've been reading about is in relation to the Bloodhound SSC, a beast of a jet/rocket-engined streamliner with visions of 1,200 mph. Right now, though, the record stands at 763 mph...

Six years after he got the idea and bought the streamliner, Jesse James has set the world record for hydrogen-powered speed. Late afternoon on June 16, James flew across the windswept dust of El Mirage dry lake bed in the California desert and tripped the lights at 199.712 mph. That was 14 mph faster than the previous record of 185 mph, set in Germany by BMW in its hydrogen-powered H2H. "This, I honestly believe, is world-changing," James said of the emissions-free race car. "We can't rely on gasoline forever. I'm paying it forward." The whole deal was for the season-ending...

As could be expected, it's certainly an ungainly thing - the rocket-shaped vehicle measures 12.8 meters long and weighs 6400 kg - but it may be more unusual than we anticipated. Though details are a bit sketchy, the press release mentions the Bloodhound SSC is powered by an "exotic combination" of jet, rocket, and piston-engine power. Now that's a hybrid... From what we understand, the rocket's charged mainly with propelling the car to high speeds. Though it's good for that, it's unable to hold selected speeds, hence the addition of a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine kicks in. The piston engine?...

<p>SPANAWAY, Washington (AP) -- A team of more than a dozen men have been spending their weekends on a 39,000-horsepower dream: to shatter the world land-speed record of 763 miles per hour with a former jet plane on wheels.</p> <p>"The British have held the record for 20 years," said Ed Shadle, a retired IBM computer technician. "It's about time that a couple of boys from Pierce County bring it back to America."</p>

A group of speed-crazed men from Pierce County wants to break the world land-speed record with a jet plane-turned-three-wheeled-vehicle they are building in a hangar in Spanaway. The vehicle has elements of a potential world record-holder: It's a former Air Force plane re-engineered for subsonic speed, with a jet engine that generates 39,000 horsepower and solid aluminum wheels machined for desert surface. "The British have held the record for 20 years," said Ed Shadle, a retired IBM computer technician who lives in Spanaway. He's co-owner and driver of the vehicle. "It's about time that a couple of boys from Pierce...

4/30/2003 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- A 192-pound, fully instrumented Missile Defense Agency payload traveled a little more than three miles in 6.04 seconds April 29, validating Holloman's high-speed test track hypersonic upgrades and setting a world land speed record. Air Force Materiel Command experts conducted the test in New Mexico's Tularosa Basin where Air Force officials witnessed a four-stage, rail-bound rocket sled reach Mach 8.5 or 6,416 mph. That equates to more than 31 football fields per second. The sled broke the standing world land speed record of Mach 8.1 for travel on rails, also set...