A British team are putting the finishing touches to a land speed world record attempt on two wheels with their Jet Reaction jetbike.

Richard Brown, an Oxfordshire engineer, built the bike which has the potential of reaching speeds of up to 450mph.

Brown and his team will do a full-powered speed test in Pendine Sands, Wales from 23-25 May before attempting to break the world record on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, United States in September.

In 1999, Brown narrowly missed beating the land speed record on Bonneville salt flats using a custom-built rocket bike, the Gillette Mach 3 Challenger bike, which featured a custom-built hybrid rocket engine.

He smashed the one-way speed record for a motorbike by hitting 363mph but his claim on the outright world record - based on the average of two runs in opposite directions - failed when a tyre burst.

Brown hopes he will become the first person to exceed 447mph on a motorbike while achieving an average two-way speed of at least 397mph.

The current motorbike land-speed record, 376mph, was set in 2010 by Rocky Robinson on a bike called the Ack Attack Streamliner. Such record-breakers feature elongated metal bodies - as does Jet Reaction - making them look more like giant bullets than motorcycles. They are also fitted with retractable stabilisers for balance when moving slowly or stationary.

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