by: Abbas Mansoor
Bloodhound Supersonic car is a British supersonic land automobile currently under modification. Its goal is to match or exceed 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h), achieving a new world land speed record. The pencil-shaped car, powered by a jet engine and a rocket engine, is designed to reach 1,050 miles per hour (1,690 km/h). It is being developed and constructed for the purpose of breaking the land speed record by 33 per cent, the biggest ever margin.
The main body of the vehicle is built, and last October (2017) Bloodhound supervised drill runs, topping 200 mph i.e. 32 km/h on the runway at New quay airport in Cornwall.
The track on which it means to beat the land speed record is also set to have the car. The Northern Cape Government in South Africa has had an 18 km-distance, 1,500 m-wide section of Hakskeen Pan cleared of stones (The work that’s been done on the pan is being repaired).
And, importantly, the one main part in the technical bundle that was amazing has just revealed its preparation. This is the rocket that would go in the rear side of Bloodhound to move it across the sonic wall.
Developed by the Norwegian aerospace and defense company Nammo, it was launched to space for the first time at the end of September. The Nucleus rocket flew to an altitude of 107 km from the Andaya Space Center.
Bloodhound would use a bunch of three Nucleus motors plus the Eurofighter EJ200 jet.
“Once we have the funding in place, or at least visibility of that funding, and the team is back in the building, then 10 months later we’re out in South Africa,” said Mark Chapman, Bloodhound’s chief engineer. “We’re that close. This is a huge opportunity for global exposure. Nammo firing that motor was really important, really impressive.”
The current plan is to run the car in the first occasion in the region of 500-600 mph (800-965 km/h), using just the Eurofighter jet, to get a better sense of how the car behaves as it approaches the speed of sound.
But currently this world’s fastest car is suffering from financial issues. The financial situation explained by Andrew Sheridan from FRP (French Rowley Partners) is:
“We have a legal entity that has gone into administration because it hasn’t got any more cash. But there is a project there that is very much alive and on the cusp of delivering its goal, which is ground-breaking with leading technology.
However, it does need circa £25 m to get it over the line, and that now requires an investor, be that a wealthy individual or a corporate of some kind,”
Bloodhound is a private project. It is funded through donations, sponsorship and partnership. Bloodhound has shined at leveraging all three, but ultimately this funding model has not delivered sufficient cash to fully sustain such a complex venture.
If the £25 m becomes available, Bloodhound could start running on Hakskeen Pan towards the end of 2019. Every individual should support such type of creative projects in every part of the world for the prosperity of engineering technology. We hope that the financial needs of the Bloodhound will be soon fulfilled and it will cross the 1000 mph speed limit on the road. Will be exciting to watch the world’s fastest car on the road.
Courtesy: BBC
