Bloodhound secures finance deal as it prepares for show

Richard Noble, 63, best known for his Thrust2 and ThrustSSC, is currently working to smash his own record with the latest car, the 130,000hp 1,000mph Bloodhound SSC. Powered by a Eurojet EJ200 Eurofighter engine and the largest UK built Falcon hybrid rocket, the 6.5tonne car will be capable of acceleration from 0-1000mph in 40 seconds, with Noble looking to achieve the magic 1,000mph in 2011. Funding for the ambitious £12million project, the majority of which is sponsor sourced, ran into short-term difficulty last month due to the credit crunch. Hilton-Baird was able to broker a factoring facility at short notice which enabled the team to maintain its design programme pace. Project director Noble said: "Ordinarily there would be no problem in gaining a factoring facility, but such is the current situation that it wasn't so easy. Fortunately, Hilton-Baird Financial Solutions came up with the solution and enabled us to maintain the essential design pace." National Electronics Week 2009 taking place next week at London's Earls Court will include a showcase of the Bloodhound SSC. Noble and his team are bringing a model of the car to the show, along with one of its EJ200 jet engines and exciting video footage of the SSC in action. Noble added: "There has never been anything like Bloodhound SSC before so to create a car capable of travelling at 1,000mph, we'll be generating cutting edge research which will have far reaching benefits across the science and engineering industries."