The annual Sir Isaac Newton Lecture for young people was held this year on Wednesday 9th October in Whittle Hall at RAF College Cranwell, Lincolnshire.

Sponsored by three Institutions The IMechE, The IET and The Royal Aeronautical Society the lecture is aimed at inspiring young engineers in Lincolnshire and named in the honor of one of our most eminent scientists, mathematician’s and scholars, and most importantly one of Lincolnshire’s most famous sons.

 

This year the speaker was Wing Commander Andy Green and the topic was the Bloodhound land-speed record challenge.

 

Andy Green, already the fastest man on four wheels having driven the current record holding car Thrust SSC, engaged an audience of 400 Lincolnshire teenagers with the aims of the Bloodhound Project, a brief history of the land-speed record attempts, the challenges to be faced by the Bloodhound team of running a vehicle across the South African desert at 1000mph, be they technical, social and logistical.  Using a combination of practical demonstrations and audience participation Andy challenged the young people on their knowledge of Newton's laws of motion, and their relevance to how the Bloodhound project can achieve its goal.

 

Speaking with passion Andy explained how the Bloodhound Project aims to bring these challenges to an unprecedented world-wide audience of young people, and to inspire enthusiasm for Science, Engineering and Technology in them and the public at large.  He also explained how this individual project had spin-offs into all kinds of other engineering fields such as materials development, and ecological issues.





Further Andy challenged the young people with the important technological questions of today, that through following a career in Science, Technology or Engineering they will be the ones to solve these great questions and challenges in the future.

 



Each school party was given an education pack sponsored by the three institutions and the RAF Careers team.