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Welcome to the iPad podcast. 
OPM has chartered body for the 

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project profession. 
My name is Emma DaVita, I'm the 

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editor of projects, apm's, 
quarterly journal and your host 

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today. 
I'm speaking to Richard Noble 

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the leader of some truly or 
inspiring British extreme speed 

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projects on land at Sea. 
And in the air, these include a 

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bringing the land speed record 
back to In in 1983 when he drove

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his thrust to car to 633 mph and
14 years later, he led the 

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thrust SEC team to achieve the 
first supersonic record at 763 

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miles per hour. 
He's also the man behind the 

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Bloodhound project with the 
mission to reach 1,000 miles per

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hour on land and to inspire 
generations of you, engineers 

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and scientists who are 
pioneering educational program, 

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he's joining us today to tell us
a bit about what it takes to 

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leave projects. 
Like this. 

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Why embracing risk makes for And
how to motivate teams if you 

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want to find out more lookout 
for his contribution to the 

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forthcoming, summer issue of 
apm's, project journal, and get 

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a copy of his book. 
Take risk published by ever. 

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Oh Richard, I just wanted to 
welcome you to our podcast. 

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Thanks again, for your time. 
It's lovely to meet you, Emma. 

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This is going to be great fun. 
I'm looking forward to this, we 

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take, well, I think a good place
to start would be for you to 

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just give us a brief overview of
A couple of projects for 

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listeners who might not be okay 
with all your work. 

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And just a bit of background on 
you, I'd always wanted to do the

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world land speed record. 
That was something that started 

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with me from the age of six when
I saw John Cobb going for the 

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water, speed record on Loch Ness
and and I wanted to, I could do 

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this. 
And I was lucky enough to be 

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able to put together an 
organization. 

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We had no money at all and I 
built a very Jet car which noted

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bloody kill me. 
And then after that, I met a 

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brilliant engineer. 
John Aykroyd, and John, and I, 

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and put together an organization
to build this land speed record 

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car, and it was a very, very 
difficult thing to do. 

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The general sort of higher of 
the establishment was dead 

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against it and we're fighting 
every sort of battle. 

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But the wonderful thing was 
sponsorship. 

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Sponsor sponsors will put up 
money, providing you, develop 

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good, quality of publicity for 
them at that. 

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Is great. 
So that means that you're 

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actually Outside The 
Establishment system. 

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In other words, you're not 
taking, you're not getting your 

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money from the city who tried to
control everything and, and that

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way that gives us great freedom.
And eventually, of course, we 

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got the world land speed record,
633 miles an hour on our 

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actually achieved its design 
speed, which was terrific, which

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was 630 miles an hour. 
So, that was that was in 1983 

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was thrust, 93, trust you? 
Yeah. 

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Then I suddenly realized my 
word, think what you could do 

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basically if you can organize 
these little flat companies you 

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could take on anybody and 
anything. 

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It's a bit like if you like the 
SAS in the military, you know, 

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very small organization but 
very, very, highly motivated. 

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And of course, if you go back to
Maslow in one of Mazda is box. 

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Right at the back, it says, the 
crucial point was that he found 

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from his experiences, and this, 
of course, is 18:40 that only 

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15% of people in a large 
organization, ever get near to 

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self-actualization levels and 
self-actualization levels means 

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that you're finding out who you 
actually are and what you can 

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really do. 
And so you have to join an 

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organization, which will give 
you that freedom and latitude. 

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And that is the big motivator 
and I suddenly realize this 

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man's. 
Absolutely bloody brilliant. 

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Wow. 
And so the next thing we To do 

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is to set up an aircraft company
to create a new light training 

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airplane. 
This was a fascinating 

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experience because of course we 
were head right up against 

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Sahara. 
Cool. 

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Organizations of the CAA keep 
saying here dcaa is fo civil 

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aviation Authority. 
This is the effects of with the 

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aviation police force. 
Yeah, they're there to make sure

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that you that you're safe and 
you're not going to drop out of 

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the sky and kill people. 
Yeah. 

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And it was absolutely 
fascinating because they Could 

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not cope with this. 
We also working with door, 

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trying to work with the 
Department of trade and 

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Industry, who are absolutely 
hopeless, because they couldn't 

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conceive of actually creating a 
new all-metal airplane, with a 

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new Aero engine and flying it 
within 13 months, which is what 

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we did. 
Hmm, they couldn't cope with 

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this. 
So they really couldn't, they 

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just thought it was some law or 
fraud or something, and I'd all 

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the way through these various 
projects we've done, which would

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Largely airplanes and land speed
record cars. 

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Basically. 
We've had big, big problems with

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the establishment, which is a 
terrible terrible. 

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Shame. 
What can project professionals 

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learn from the way you approach 
projects, right? 

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Well, the first thing of really 
is to forget everything you've 

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learnt. 
Okay, let's start off with a 

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clenched clean sheet of paper. 
And when you're doing a big 

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project like for instance, like 
farmer aircraft, what you got to

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do is Effectively is to consider
that you're going to walk 

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through a large wood or porch. 
Let's go to the forest. 

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We're going to go into this 
forest in your hopefully get to 

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come out the other side but 
there are no paths. 

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And so all that every moment 
you've got to have your fingers 

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on the Gantt chart pulse so you 
know exactly where you are. 

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You realize that you will make 
wrong turns from time to time 

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and you've got to be able to be 
very quick, but the crucial 

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thing about the whole thing is 
speed, you've got to move very 

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very quickly. 
Quickly make your decisions very

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very quickly. 
Now we all know that you know 

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most executive decisions are if 
you're lucky 50% to write. 

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But the important thing is 
making the decisions and keeping

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the organization pointed in the 
in what you believe is the right

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direction. 
And from time to time, of course

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you can talk against are a blank
wall, one something simply can't

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be done and you've got to find 
another way of getting around 

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it. 
Now the wonderful thing about 

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this is that these organizations
providing Running a flat 

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organization, you're empowering 
people properly, not just giving

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them responsibility, but giving 
them responsibility with the 

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appropriate Authority. 
So they can fail the company. 

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If they wanted to this becomes 
really interesting because 

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basically, they will probably 
find the way out that you 

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haven't gotten it in your book, 
take risk. 

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You are very critical of 
organizations saying that we've,

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and as a country, we've come far
to risk of us, but without the 

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process and Making things 
essentially a safe and secure. 

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How do you how do you pull off a
project that Embraces risk 

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because that brings innovative 
solutions, but actually tie that

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to a process that keeps everyone
safe or things on track or 

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reassures the financial backers 
that things won't all go wrong 

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in the end but let's start with 
the problem. 

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That's the problem. 
The problem is the financial 

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backers. 
These guys don't Take risk not 

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on our summer levels and you 
know, and they should not be in 

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the equation. 
So, what actually happens is 

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that you come up against a 
particular problem and the 

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important thing is the culture, 
you see, we've been taking risks

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on a daily basis for the last 40
years, and you quickly 

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understand what risks can be 
taken and what risks should be 

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avoided. 
And sometimes you find yourself 

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in a situation where you simply 
have to take, And you got a belt

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to live with the consequences of
it. 

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So with the Supersonic Car, for 
instance, we had to have a car, 

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which was steered by its rear 
wheels, to enormous afterburning

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turbofan engines, nobody ever 
built, anything like this. 

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And if we've gone to the city 
for funds for this, I mean, 

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we've been sharing the doors, 
almost immediately. 

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So the risk-taking actually 
funny enough is that a Mystic 

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thing and what is always say to 
people is start taking risk now 

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at home gun, And by some 
extraordinary car is gone by buy

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a house, which you can't afford 
go and do this gonna do that. 

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And after a bit every time you 
take risk, it opens up a 

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completely new culture. 
And, and it completely new world

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that you, of course, would have 
been avoiding because he were 

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playing the safe game. 
So you've got to start at home 

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and the wonderful thing about 
failure. 

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And that's very important is 
that you learn much more from 

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failure than you ever would do 
From Success. 

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So, few failures in your V, a 
very important. 

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So you've got to put failure 
behind you. 

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So you imagine driving the land 
speed record car back in 1980s. 

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Basically, you know what do I 
do? 

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Well this thing is probably got 
a chance of killing me. 

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So you put that behind you, you 
say, fine, what we've got here 

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is a very, very good team of 
people. 

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It's that is basically a safety 
thing and and basically you push

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on and eventually you get that 
if you're taking high risk and 

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you're giving people 
responsibility true, 

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Responsibility and autonomy. 
What do you have to have within 

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those teams to ensure that that 
things do go? 

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Okay, two things the right 
people and and good 

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communication. 
Yes, that's a crucial to tell me

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a bit more about the right 
people. 

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Well, what generally happens 
with these projects is that we 

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don't recruit people just come 
and if you're if that happens 

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then basically, you know, that 
that person is probably very 

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upset or very disaffected with 
the, with his or her current job

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and secondly, that they want to 
innovate and they want to create

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and they want an opportunity. 
So you've got to provide them 

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with the opportunity, which gets
them quickly from where they 

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are, which is basically 
submerged in a hierarchical 

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culture into a flat company. 
Ultra and to get them up right 

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to the top of my says, pyramid, 
self-actualization and generally

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takes about three months. 
So somebody somewhere along the 

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lines, a new person is recruited
in arrives and so on. 

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And I take a look at them and I 
think, oh my God, hang on a 

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moment. 
One because one of our rules in 

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the organization is you must 
always recruit people who are 

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better than you are. 
Yeah. 

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Okay. 
So the organization gets 

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stronger and then what happens 
is over a period of three months

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or so that person will change 
Enjoy out of all recognition and

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suddenly you think. 
Wow, I got that rarely wrong. 

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This this person is absolutely 
bloody amazing and this is how 

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it works. 
So it's very much, a cultural 

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thing. 
Do you have any advice around 

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how to create a sense of 
purpose, a sense of mission. 

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And how do you go about selling 
a vision for these projects 

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basically are effectively, 
single Focus, like breaking the 

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world land speed record or 
creating a new type of error 

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plane. 
And basically that keeps life 

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very simple because that's just 
what you are doing. 

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Yeah, selling the concept is of 
course, talking about Innovation

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and change and people want 
innovation in this world big 

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time. 
We got enormous problems because

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of the risk of us Society, we 
live in. 

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Can I ask you what kind of 
leader you are? 

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Well, I'm, I'm not a controlling
legal leader, this is the 

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important thing about it. 
You've got to actually You're 

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working with people not, they're
not working for you, they're 

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working. 
We're all working together. 

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We're all in the same in the 
same bowl of soup if you like. 

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Yeah, but basically I happen to 
be a director of the company and

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I've got to take responsibility 
for the entire show and that is 

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that makes me a bit different 
and occasionally just 

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occasionally I step in and say, 
hey guys, we can't do that. 

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That's where we're going away 
away from what we're trying to 

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achieve, but very, very 
flexible. 

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Our Flagship confidence power 
project is back for 2022 on 

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00:12:30,300 --> 00:12:32,900
Thursday, the 9th of June at 
Park Plaza. 

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00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:36,100
London, with a bank, hear from 
industry leading speakers. 

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00:12:36,100 --> 00:12:38,200
It's brilliant topics. 
Such as leadership, 

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00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:42,000
sustainability, and diversity, 
network with project 

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00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:43,900
professionals and land. 
The key skills. 

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00:12:44,100 --> 00:12:48,700
You need to thrive in your 
career, visit a p.m. dot org.uk 

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00:12:48,700 --> 00:12:51,600
to book your place. 
Today, we look forward to seeing

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00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:55,900
you there. 
I mean, I'd like to talk a bit 

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about Bloodhound and yeah, the 
ability to just keep persevering

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in the face of. 
Well I love these things, I mean

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it's so exciting to see the 
world has changed and it's 

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changed because of two things. 
One is because basically people 

228
00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:13,900
are now beginning to accept the 
fact that they have to change, 

229
00:13:13,900 --> 00:13:17,100
they really have to change. 
Can't go on doing the same 

230
00:13:17,100 --> 00:13:18,200
thing. 
I mean the country is in a 

231
00:13:18,208 --> 00:13:21,300
terrible mess financially at the
moment as we know and what 

232
00:13:21,300 --> 00:13:24,100
you've got to do is you've got 
to innovate and by innovation of

233
00:13:24,108 --> 00:13:25,400
course. 
You're going to produce new 

234
00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:30,000
products and services which has 
which generate much much higher 

235
00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:34,700
margins which is you know the 
life to keep on doing the same 

236
00:13:34,700 --> 00:13:37,000
old thing that you're marching. 
Just get Decline and decline 

237
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,400
that Kleiner and eventually you 
will lose the company. 

238
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,000
So we've got that. 
And then on the other side 

239
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,800
you've got the the new 
technology things like 

240
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:48,100
computational fluid, dynamics 
are and and all the rest of it. 

241
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:52,000
And it's absolutely fascinating 
because you can start to apply 

242
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:54,500
this stuff to things that have 
never been done. 

243
00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,700
Before, and you can really 
innovate and provide you what a 

244
00:13:58,700 --> 00:14:03,400
team that's that is prepared to 
join in and take risk. 

245
00:14:03,500 --> 00:14:06,300
And they are taking an element 
of risk, because, you know, 

246
00:14:06,300 --> 00:14:10,100
they're putting some of their, 
their life aside to actually do 

247
00:14:10,100 --> 00:14:12,200
this. 
They understand the risk, they 

248
00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,300
understand that it could fail 
but they're going to learn so 

249
00:14:15,300 --> 00:14:17,800
much from it. 
And for instance, for a while, 

250
00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:20,500
we were doing the Bloodhound 
project, we worked extensively 

251
00:14:20,500 --> 00:14:24,200
with the with the Army. 
Well, the Royal Engineers now 

252
00:14:24,200 --> 00:14:27,200
this Was fantastic. 
Because basically, what they 

253
00:14:27,208 --> 00:14:33,600
are, you have a dyed-in-the-wool
hierarchical organization and 

254
00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,900
they're giving us some of their 
people groups of six to come and

255
00:14:36,900 --> 00:14:39,700
work with us and they can't 
believe what's actually 

256
00:14:39,700 --> 00:14:43,000
happening there. 
Being trusted but not being told

257
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:46,600
what to do. 
Yeah and the the engineers the 

258
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:49,300
the Army comes back after us 
it's absolutely amazing. 

259
00:14:49,300 --> 00:14:52,300
You've changed our people out of
all recognition that suddenly 

260
00:14:52,300 --> 00:14:55,000
taking responsibility and 
Leadership because Basically, 

261
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,800
people are fundamentally very 
clever and fundamentally very 

262
00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:02,400
honest and with Bloodhound. 
What were the biggest lessons 

263
00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,000
you learned from that? 
Because you are, oh my God, keep

264
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,300
away from the government. 
Oh no. 

265
00:15:08,100 --> 00:15:10,300
Um, I'm very very proud of 
Bloodhound. 

266
00:15:10,700 --> 00:15:15,200
It's a terrific treatment by 
tremendous team of people. 

267
00:15:16,900 --> 00:15:19,300
Basically, what happened was, 
the Americans have decided they 

268
00:15:19,300 --> 00:15:22,300
were going to take what, take 
our supersonic record. 

269
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,300
And obviously, we've got to 
defend this. 

270
00:15:24,500 --> 00:15:27,800
Our spy position. 
So we set out to produce this 

271
00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,500
far as Monarch are and of 
course, everybody said we can't 

272
00:15:31,500 --> 00:15:34,200
be done and or what do you think
you're doing and all that sort 

273
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,200
of thing? 
But one or two people thought? 

274
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,700
Well, this is amazing. 
I mean, after all this team did 

275
00:15:38,700 --> 00:15:43,700
break, the sound barrier, nobody
has done that and we got going 

276
00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:47,300
and with the ministry of 
Defence, one director, came up 

277
00:15:47,300 --> 00:15:51,400
with an absolutely brilliant 
idea which was to use the 

278
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,800
project as a stimulus. 
Stimulant For Education. 

279
00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:59,900
Yes, I'm curious to find out 
more, yeah, because we could we 

280
00:15:59,900 --> 00:16:04,100
could make the whole project, 
all the data on a project live, 

281
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:05,600
we could make it available to 
them. 

282
00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,900
We're not concerned about IP 
issues or anything like that. 

283
00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:13,300
We can just do this thing and 
share it and it became enormous.

284
00:16:13,300 --> 00:16:16,200
I mean we were doing 120 
thousand kids a year. 

285
00:16:16,300 --> 00:16:18,800
The scale of this thing was that
we were the biggest stem program

286
00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:21,600
in Britain. 
It was suicide, huge success. 

287
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:25,600
So certainly if that gives the 
Gave the project real 

288
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,300
credibility. 
Unfortunately our American 

289
00:16:28,300 --> 00:16:31,700
Revival was killed in an air 
crash which was just rotten. 

290
00:16:31,700 --> 00:16:36,600
Luck is just very very bad luck 
and we decided we keep the 

291
00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:40,200
project going because it was 
such a creative project and we 

292
00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:44,500
had some sort of 300 companies 
working on it and we got the car

293
00:16:44,500 --> 00:16:48,500
built but as there were all 
sorts of enormous problems. 

294
00:16:48,700 --> 00:16:52,300
Like for instance, these cars 
have to run on a special sort of

295
00:16:52,300 --> 00:16:56,900
surface yes desert surface. 
And the special surface that 

296
00:16:56,900 --> 00:17:01,400
we've been using in America, had
been wrecked on by a Leisure 

297
00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:05,400
activity called Burning Man. 
Oh, the festival year 70,000. 

298
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,599
Americans, turn up and run paint
themselves. 

299
00:17:07,599 --> 00:17:11,500
Different colors and online. 
Stalker sounds like fun. 

300
00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:15,300
I'm sure it's great fun. 
Rex our desert. 

301
00:17:15,300 --> 00:17:17,000
Yeah, so we had to find another 
one. 

302
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,599
We find it in South Africa and 
the South African people put in 

303
00:17:20,599 --> 00:17:24,000
1,000 man years of work. 
Creating this track for us. 

304
00:17:24,500 --> 00:17:26,800
How's man years. 
So that they were literally on 

305
00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:29,900
their hands and knees, picking 
clearing stones and rocks. 

306
00:17:29,900 --> 00:17:32,600
Yep. 
They claim cleared 16,000 tons 

307
00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,100
of stones, we had 300 companies 
working on it. 

308
00:17:36,700 --> 00:17:40,600
Our sponsorship that we'd raised
was the total of 31 million and 

309
00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:43,800
on that excluded all the 
companies who gave us bits and 

310
00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:45,700
pieces and made bits and pieces 
for us. 

311
00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,800
So this is a huge thing and as 
coarse as a project gets nearer 

312
00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:54,000
and nearer to Ginger point where
it runs, it gets bigger and 

313
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:55,300
bigger and bigger. 
Cash. 

314
00:17:55,300 --> 00:17:57,700
Requirements course, gets bigger
and bigger these projects 

315
00:17:57,700 --> 00:18:00,000
actually very, very difficult to
plan because the levels of 

316
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,600
innovation. 
And so, you've got to get bigger

317
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:05,200
and bigger deals, and this means
that your sponsors have to take 

318
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:09,000
greater and greater risk. 
Not because the project risk. 

319
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,600
But because you're asking for 
more and more money to actually 

320
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:17,100
do this and we were running to 
real difficulties and then 

321
00:18:17,100 --> 00:18:23,300
suddenly a brilliant manly xufu,
who's the chairman of the Julie 

322
00:18:23,300 --> 00:18:26,600
car company. 
Took a real interest in us and 

323
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,300
he decided he was, he was going 
to sponsor us. 

324
00:18:29,300 --> 00:18:33,000
So I was commuting back supports
of China, putting this terrific 

325
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,500
deal together and he was so he's
a great great man and also at 

326
00:18:37,500 --> 00:18:41,000
the same time that wasn't enough
for us to run the car in 2017 

327
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:45,400
and we needed a bit more and we 
taken the project to the city 

328
00:18:45,500 --> 00:18:50,100
and we put the car on show and 
8,000 people came in two days to

329
00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:52,300
see it. 
We actually had to sort of put 

330
00:18:52,300 --> 00:18:54,900
them in groups to get them 
through because otherwise Some 

331
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:59,900
the whole thing was getting too 
congested and they bought 60,000

332
00:18:59,900 --> 00:19:01,600
quids worth of merchandise or 
terrific. 

333
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,300
Great fine, you know, but was 
gonna be any sponsorship from 

334
00:19:05,300 --> 00:19:06,100
that. 
No. 

335
00:19:06,100 --> 00:19:07,900
Because you're dealing actually 
with the city. 

336
00:19:07,900 --> 00:19:09,700
The city doesn't take these sort
of rest. 

337
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,500
It's runs itself, as I select 
organization, and it doesn't do 

338
00:19:14,500 --> 00:19:18,100
this sort of thing, but so I 
went to the chancellor. 

339
00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:19,700
George Osborne and said, I'm 
terribly. 

340
00:19:19,700 --> 00:19:21,100
Sorry, George, we're going to 
lose this. 

341
00:19:21,500 --> 00:19:24,400
I can't keep up the cash flow. 
We've done that. 

342
00:19:24,500 --> 00:19:26,200
See what we've done all this 
money so far. 

343
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:28,700
But the fundamental thing is 
I've got to keep this project 

344
00:19:28,700 --> 00:19:32,500
moving fast and moving, and I 
think it's got real values for 

345
00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:34,600
the country, particularly the 
education side. 

346
00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,400
And I wondered if you tell so 
the chancellor set up a program 

347
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,500
with Bay's to review this whole 
thing and find out whether this 

348
00:19:42,500 --> 00:19:45,700
was a value to Britain. 
Fine. 

349
00:19:45,900 --> 00:19:47,800
Great. 
Well, I really welcome this 

350
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,800
because what they were doing was
going through every single 

351
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,600
aspect of the project, all the 
accounts, all our planning 

352
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,200
everything, and it was great. 
It came out with very much the 

353
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,800
same sort of figures as we did, 
which is great, and they then 

354
00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:01,900
made us an offer, which was 
terrific. 

355
00:20:01,900 --> 00:20:04,400
Oh, fantastic. 
Now if we've got this offer and 

356
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,000
we've also got the Chinese deal,
which is now signed, and they've

357
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,400
made their first payment. 
This is terrific. 

358
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:14,200
Now we're going to get this one.
And I looked at all the 

359
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,300
requirements And they offer, and
it's quite clear. 

360
00:20:17,300 --> 00:20:20,100
We could meet them all. 
Hold a meeting with the civil 

361
00:20:20,100 --> 00:20:24,400
servants had, a very odd meeting
with them and I just didn't 

362
00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:27,800
know, none of us. 
Could understand what the hell's

363
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:29,000
going on. 
Yeah. 

364
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:31,100
And they just didn't talk to us 
again. 

365
00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:33,100
It was simple as that. 
That was. 

366
00:20:33,100 --> 00:20:35,000
It wasn't it for the so that was
it. 

367
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,400
I then had to go back to China 
and say, look, I'm terribly. 

368
00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,400
Sorry, the British government 
has defaulted on on this offer, 

369
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,700
we've met all the conditions and
I shared all the conditions with

370
00:20:43,700 --> 00:20:45,900
the Chinese and in you. 
Exactly the situation. 

371
00:20:45,900 --> 00:20:48,800
Yeah, they decided they couldn't
continue because they were going

372
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:50,700
to have to carry the whole 
thing. 

373
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:55,600
And yeah it was absolutely 
bloody terrible and all this was

374
00:20:55,600 --> 00:21:00,000
lost all this time. 
People's money, everything was 

375
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:06,200
just lost because of failure to 
to sign off on a deal which 

376
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,700
they'd offered. 
It was just extraordinary. 

377
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:13,100
I kept going, I kept going and 
18 months later, the Secretary 

378
00:21:13,100 --> 00:21:14,600
of State of initially signed off
on it. 

379
00:21:15,100 --> 00:21:17,300
But it was too late by then we 
went to brexit, there was no 

380
00:21:17,300 --> 00:21:21,300
money and you know it was over. 
What a waste, what an awful 

381
00:21:21,300 --> 00:21:25,000
waste, what's happened to 
Bloodhound out of what did you 

382
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,200
do with it? 
Well, Bloodhound I had to put 

383
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,500
blood hard Administration. 
Otherwise we were going to go 

384
00:21:29,500 --> 00:21:33,400
insolvent and and it was bought 
by a third party. 

385
00:21:33,900 --> 00:21:37,400
He put up his phone, private 
money and got the car to South 

386
00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:39,300
Africa. 
So did run on the desert which 

387
00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:42,000
was good and they've got up to 
six hundred and twenty eight 

388
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,300
miles an hour. 
The Next Step was to bring in 

389
00:21:45,300 --> 00:21:48,300
the the rocket motor which is 
being developed by our friends 

390
00:21:48,300 --> 00:21:53,900
in in Norway. 
And they just didn't make the 

391
00:21:53,900 --> 00:21:56,500
next step. 
So the car is now sitting rather

392
00:21:56,500 --> 00:22:00,500
full only in a museum and 
talking to the Bloodhound 

393
00:22:00,500 --> 00:22:02,400
people. 
They all think it's probably 

394
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,300
over which is just an awful 
waste and terrible shame. 

395
00:22:06,500 --> 00:22:09,400
But it just shows how vulnerable
these organizations are. 

396
00:22:09,900 --> 00:22:13,800
Well what's it like driving one 
of these incredible machines 

397
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:16,600
because you have A couple of 
nasty accident. 

398
00:22:16,700 --> 00:22:19,500
Oh yes. 
I mean this is this is the name 

399
00:22:19,500 --> 00:22:22,200
of the game. 
I'm afraid things do go wrong 

400
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,700
but your safety depends on the 
team. 

401
00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:28,400
It's about the team doing 
everything they're supposed to 

402
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,200
do and getting it right? 
And communicating, The crucial 

403
00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:36,600
thing is communicating, I mean 
something's wrong but God said, 

404
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,700
don't hide it say so and so we 
can try and sort it out. 

405
00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:42,200
What's it like being in the 
cockpit, you know, what's 

406
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,000
actually like, I'd love to find 
out. 

407
00:22:44,100 --> 00:22:48,500
Well, You're part of a team and 
you're setting out to do 

408
00:22:48,500 --> 00:22:53,200
something, which is your share 
of the project if you like. 

409
00:22:53,300 --> 00:22:57,700
And so therefore you've got to 
develop as fast as you can and 

410
00:22:57,700 --> 00:23:02,700
you've got to be as professional
and as sufficient and and 

411
00:23:02,700 --> 00:23:04,800
communicative as you possibly 
can. 

412
00:23:05,700 --> 00:23:09,700
And the thing about it is that 
you put your fear behind you. 

413
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,300
So when you start off you say 
well that's not the project off.

414
00:23:13,500 --> 00:23:17,100
You say well okay we're going to
This fun, I've got to deliver 

415
00:23:17,100 --> 00:23:19,600
for the rest of the team. 
So that's, that's what it's 

416
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,200
about. 
And I mean, we got to a point 

417
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:25,200
where we could drive through us 
to every day, at over 600 miles 

418
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:26,900
an hour. 
I mean, it's incredibly 

419
00:23:26,900 --> 00:23:31,000
reliable, there's a fantastic 
team of people make it sound so 

420
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,700
angry, you know? 
Well, I mean, you know, if 

421
00:23:35,700 --> 00:23:39,100
you're driving at 600 miles an 
hour every day, it's just, it's 

422
00:23:39,100 --> 00:23:41,300
just good Venture. 
It's just gonna be very 

423
00:23:41,300 --> 00:23:43,900
graphically. 
What's it like being doing that?

424
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:47,800
Do it. 
It's another run and your War 

425
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:51,600
always totally absolutely 
focused on the numbers where 

426
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,000
you've got to be the speeds. 
You've got to be and the 

427
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,400
importance of not ever letting 
up. 

428
00:23:57,700 --> 00:24:00,300
As if you let your front foot 
off the accelerator a little 

429
00:24:00,300 --> 00:24:03,600
demon, a little bit, it'll 
affect the top speed big time. 

430
00:24:03,900 --> 00:24:07,000
So you're flat out right? 
From the moment it goes, do you 

431
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,700
feel quite calm when you're 
doing it? 

432
00:24:08,700 --> 00:24:09,900
I guess you're my God. 
I love it. 

433
00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:12,800
I love it because I love to 
think that I could go and drive 

434
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:13,800
it again today. 
Yeah. 

435
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,200
Brilliant. 
Well so tell me what are you 

436
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,700
working on right now? 
Well working on another project 

437
00:24:20,700 --> 00:24:25,400
which we have launched yet which
is I'm finding very attractive 

438
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,100
because it's very very 
difficult. 

439
00:24:28,100 --> 00:24:32,100
The physics are absolutely 
extraordinary and the 

440
00:24:32,100 --> 00:24:34,200
interesting thing about it is it
can be done in Britain which 

441
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:36,200
would be really great because 
that'll work really well with 

442
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,800
the education side. 
So what are very early days at 

443
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,400
the moment? 
Now the project is very ill, 

444
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,800
informed that we've got a 
fantastic team of people working

445
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:48,400
Working on it and just hope that
we're going to deliberate and 

446
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,600
make it public very soon. 
When do you hope to launch it? 

447
00:24:52,300 --> 00:24:54,000
We hope to launch it sometime 
this year. 

448
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,800
Yeah. 
Have you got any last pieces of 

449
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:01,500
advice to project professionals 
about around the idea of risk 

450
00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:05,900
taking risk, please? 
Please take risk. 

451
00:25:05,900 --> 00:25:09,100
Try to create something, which 
is different, you're going to 

452
00:25:09,100 --> 00:25:15,000
bigger margin for it and also, 
change your life, good do Some 

453
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:19,100
do risky things but it's only 
jumping out of airplanes with a 

454
00:25:19,108 --> 00:25:23,600
parachute do change your life, 
and, you know, and then you will

455
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:27,300
then realize that there is an 
awful lot of excitement to be 

456
00:25:27,300 --> 00:25:29,600
had from taking risk. 
Fantastic would have brilliant 

457
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,500
white Hyundai poker. 
So I just want to say, again, 

458
00:25:31,500 --> 00:25:33,800
thank you so much for your time.
Thank you very much. 

459
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,600
Keep we keep us posted about 
your project when it launches. 

460
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,000
Yeah, I will go. 
Of course I will. 

461
00:25:39,100 --> 00:25:45,100
Yeah, Thanks again to Richard 
for joining us and to you for 

462
00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:47,900
listening to this episode of the
APM podcast. 

463
00:25:48,500 --> 00:25:51,200
Don't forget to look out for 
more episodes in this series or 

464
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:52,800
to write a review as wherever 
you get to. 

465
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:56,900
In podcast, you'll find us on 
Spotify, Apple podcast, scuba 

466
00:25:56,900 --> 00:25:59,800
pull calls for more. 
We welcome you to get in touch 

467
00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,400
with your comments feedback and 
suggestions by e-mailing us at a

468
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:08,900
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469
00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:11,700
has been brought to you by APM 
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470
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472
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