Take Risk!

Richard Noble has had the ambition all his adult life to see Britain excel in engineering on the world stage. His achievements in the highly insecure world of record-breaking emphatically demonstrate his commitment to his cause: He brought the Land Speed Record back to Britain in 1983 when he drove his Thrust2 car to 633mph and 14 years later he led the ThrustSSC team to achieve the first supersonic record at 763mph with Andy Green driving. In his book Take Risk! he tells the extraordinary stories of his 11 projects in record-breaking and aviation that all saw people and companies go out of their way to join him in his exciting endeavours - and take risk.

• Thrust2: The rollercoaster ride with designers John Ackroyd and Ken Norris to attack the Land Speed Record at Bonneville and how it succeeded after innumerable setbacks, including sponsor withdrawals, delays, and a rebuild after a crash.
• ARV Aircraft: Creating an innovative and beautiful metal aircraft with safe forward-swept wings and a special Hewland engine, all achieved in 13 months from start-up with no design and little money.
• ThrustSSC: The momentous achievement of breaking the sound barrier on land against the odds after another fraught and prolonged struggle.
• Farnborough Aircraft: A project to create a new small aircraft to provide low-cost taxi services, with running costs akin to a Range Rover.
• Dieselmax: Working with JCB on the diesel-powered record breaker that exceeded 350mph at Bonneville in 2006.
• Bloodhound: The 1,000mph projectile that consumed Noble’s energies from 2008 until 2019, complete with a huge education programme to enthuse British schoolchildren - until financial obstacles proved overwhelming.