How far beyond the original budget are they, and how much more cash will they need to finish the project? Only interested as my wife use to write the cheques for one of the main sponsors and the amount of times Bloodhound people came back with cap in hand was quite something.
I’m sure threy’ve come back many times ‘cap in hand’. That’s how these projects roll, one off’s with no really commercial application, just about doing it for the hell of it and an opportunity for sponsors to get associated with something that is pushing the boundaries. That’s what Richard Noble brings to the party, the ability to be able to approach and influence big business and raise the capital needed. It will be what he spends 95% of his time on.
We’ve had many an inspirational speaker at work events all doing similar things like sailing round the world single handidly, and the main challenge is keeping the flow of money comIng. Nobody does this sort of thing for free.
The benefit of this is something that cannot be valued. The company I work for is a main sponsor and we use our association to it’s full effect in a large variety of STEM programmes with schools, universities and overseas projects, and from my limited involnent in this the company has pledged to help out in any way it can so we’re fully committed to see the programme through.
Looking forward to seeing it having a go.