Inside Bloodhound SSC, the car aiming to crack the 1,000mph mark

Andy Green, RAF fighter pilot, record breaker and action hero, slipped off his shoes before clambering into the cockpit of Bloodhound, the supersonic car being handcrafted in the UK to hit the 1,000mph (1,610km/h) mark.

"I don't want to put my boot through any of the digital displays. That wouldn't be too clever," Green said.

By next summer Bloodhound SSC will be racing along a Cornish test track and a few weeks later be transported to a desert in South Africa where the plan is for it to reach 800mph and break Green's own current land-speed record of 763mph. Then next year, if all goes well, Green will return to South Africa and drive Bloodhound at 1,000mph, faster than a bullet, faster than an aircraft.

At the unveiling of the cockpit - a key stage in the development of the 10-year project - Green said the idea was not just to make history but to push back the laws of physics and inspire a new generation across the world to become scientists and engineers. "This is the greatest engineering adventure in motor sport," he said.

It is hard to grasp just how fast 1,000mph is. Green said the best way of illustrating it was to imagine it travelling the length of a soccer pitch. If a spectator blinked, he or she would not see the car driving past. "That is fast," he said.

The cockpit turns out to be a pleasing combination of the super hi-tech and the ordinary. It features, for example, state-of-the art ballistic armour to protect the driver from a shooting stone or bird strike. But the triggers on the steering wheel that control the car's rockets were taken from an ordinary hand power drill - because they are built to withstand huge vibration and dust.