Aug. 12 (UPI) — A retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot who is the only person to have traveled faster than the speed of sound on land, set a world land speed record for a hydrogen-powered car of more than 400 mph in Utah.
Powered by two 800 horsepower hydrogen internal combustion engines, Briton Andy Green‘s bullet-shaped Hydromax Streamliner, averaged across two runs, reached a speed of 406.32 mph on Tuesday at the Bonneville Salt Flats, smashing the previous record set in 2004 by more than 220 mph.
World motorsport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of world motorsport, verified the attempt as the highest speed ever achieved by a hydrogen-powered vehicle.
The engines were from an earth-moving machine made by the British heavy plant manufacturer JCB, delivering massive power to the drivetrain by mixing pressurized hydrogen gas with air which is then ignited, similar to combustion engines, but with no emissions.
Green also set a world land speed record of 350 mph for diesel power in another JCB-developed car in 2006.
“Setting a world land speed record with hydrogen power, 20 years after Dieselmax, is a huge privilege. This record is a huge achievement by a world class team and superb technology,” Green said.
JCB chairman Lord Anthony Bamford said going after the record was in part a proof of concept exercise to show that hydrogen was a viable solution to the demand from heavy industries for a clean energy that could rival traditional fuels in efficiency.
He also believes hyrdogen is more effective for construction and agricultural machinery and plant than electric battery power.
In October 1997, Green pushed his twin jet-engine powered Thrust SSC to 763.035 mph, smashing through the sound barrier as it streaked across the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada.
The record stands to this day.