Ray Dausman designed the engine for the Blue Flame which set the land speed record at Bonneville in 1970, and is cerrently serving as an adviser for Project Blackbird, to break the current land speed record.

Others working on Project Blackbird include Nathan Marks, who assisted with NASA’s Lucy mission whereby a spacecraft visited asteroids connected to Jupiter. Purdue University Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Carson Slabaugh is also helping as are a number of Purdue students.

Project Blackbird aims to create a vehicle which would go at least 800 miles per hour. If successful, the project would also bring the land speed record back to the United States, with the current record of more than 763 miles per hour held by Great Britain in a vehicle driven by former British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green.

The Blue Flame, with driver Gary Gabelich, went more than 622 miles per hour in Oct 1970

Dausman said a scale model of the vehicle should be completed soon, with it to be tested in a wind tunnel in Florida.

When the vehicle is actually constructed, it will be built in Lafayette. Plans are to test it at Alvord Desert in Oregon.

https://www.inkfreenews.com/2026/09/30/rochester-man-part-of-future-land-speed-record-effort