ThrustSSC set the first official supersonic land speed record in 1997.
On 15 October 1997, Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green drove ThrustSSC across Nevada’s Black Rock Desert at more than the speed of sound. The World Motor Sport Council later homologated its record, making ThrustSSC the first land vehicle officially confirmed to break the sound barrier.
The car was powered by two afterburning Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines, the same general engine family used in the British version of the F-4 Phantom II fighter. Together they produced roughly 50,000 pounds-force of thrust. ThrustSSC recorded 1,227.985 km/h over the flying mile and 1,223.657 km/h over the flying kilometre.
ThrustSSC is often confused with earlier record vehicles such as Spirit of America and Blue Flame, but those were not the first official supersonic land-speed achievers. Bloodhound LSR is a later successor project that aimed to exceed 1,000 mph but did not replace ThrustSSC’s official record. The 1997 run remains a landmark in automotive and propulsion engineering.