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NOBLE**, RICHARD and TREMAYNE**, DAVID: : THRUST: Through the Sound Barrier.** [Author SIGNED copy.**]

LONDON.TRANSWORLD PUBLISHERS/PARTRIDGE,1998.

ISBN 1852252685.

UK,Qrto HB+dw/dj,SIGNED,1st edn.FINE+/FINE. No owner inscrptn,but blue ink,author's dedication and his trademark,expansive signature (with the double parallel lines flourish at the end: 'For Andrew (underlined) Hope you enjoy this! Richard Noble.' to front free endpaper,and no price-clip to dw/dj.[Uncertain as to whether the 'Andrew' (in the dedication) is to the THRUSTSSC driver Andy Green.]Bright, crisp,clean,glossy laminated,monochrome photographic illustrated dw/dj,with white+blue and red lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top +fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,would appear unread apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,generally sharp-cornered but for the two bottom corners which are minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing,publisher's original plain dark blue cloth boards with bright, crisp,blocked silver gilt letters to spine/ backstrip and immaculate plain red endpapers - signature+dedication excepted. UK,Qrto HB+dw/dj,1st edn,6-320pp includes author's separate introduction and prologue,22 chapters including an epilogue; profuse b/w illus/diagram/plans/sketches and contemporary colour photographs throughout the text and the book, acknowledgements,appendices(4),and an index.Plus [unpaginated] colour photographic (THRUST SSC car) half-title page,colour photographic double title page, and double-page colour photographic scenic illustrated contents list/table pages. They said it couldn't be done. Sceptics warned that as a car approached 750 m.p.h.,the shock waves generated when it hit the sound barrier would either force it off the ground like an aeroplane or tear it apart. RICHARD NOBLE,the modern embodiment of the swashbuckling British speed-seeker of yesteryear,was used to that kind of blinkered thinking.He had held the title of the Fastest Man on Earth since 1983,when his Thrust2 car set a new world land-speed record at 633 m.p.h.Critics had argued that he would fail then,too.Noble likes nothing better than a fight.In the late 1990s,as a gripping Anglo-American race began to create the world's first supersonic car,he was determined to achieve this world first for Britain. Noble has been obsessed with speed since he was six years old,when his father took him to see John Cobb's 200 m.p.h. boat Crusader.He has pursued this obsession through a series of challenges - from his early days with the crude,self-built Thrust1 jet car,to the world-beating Thrust2; from his innovative ARV Super2 plane to the Atlantic Sprinter,his failed attempt to build a record-breaking boat; culminating in ThrustSSC,the fastest car in the world. On 15 October 1997 Noble's ThrustSCC, driven by ice-cool RAF Squadron Leader Andy Green,smashed through the sound barrier to create the first supersonic land-speed record at 763 m.p.h.The ThrustSCC team had beaten the Americans,thumbed its nose at the sceptics,and realized what seemed an impossible dream.It was a triumph for British engineering,technology and derring-do. This is not a tale of unbroken success,but of disappointment and struggle,too - of how Noble risked everything he had to keep the SCC project active; and of the entangled human emotions behind one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20thC. Please contactseller,because of the lheavier weight of this item (just over 1Kg unpackaged),for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** This item offered P+p included.Offer available UK only,unless indicated otherwise. ** ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,Qrto HB+dw/dj,SIGNED,1st edn.
'For Andrew (underlined) Hope you enjoy this! Richard Noble.'

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