Bloodhound SSC

[roost89]

I'm sure many of you know of Bloodhound SSC.

Britains attempt to break the land-speed record by the largest margin yet. The record they're attempting to set is 1,000mph or 1,600km/h. I've been watching a video Which is giving some stats on it and telling people what it's about. Some of the statistics are un-real!

Its wheels will be travelling at 10,300rpm and 50,000g (at their tips) when going full tilt. The rocket engine will be using 1 tonne of Hydrogen peroxide every 20 seconds, that's so much it needs its own engine (800hp V-12 race engine) just to pump the peroxide. The pump spins at 10,000rpm.
The Falcon Hybrid Rocket has "at least 27,000 lbs of thrust" and the EJ200 Typhoon jet engine has 20,000lbs of thrust.

It reaches 1,000mph in 45 seconds and 4.5 miles. It covers the measured mile in 3.7 seconds!

Massive numbers. It's no light beast either, 5 tonnes empty. Isn't small at 12.8 metres long.

Its main rivals are:

North American Eagle

This car has a smaller target of only 800mph
"Our project's goal - break the existing record of 763 mph (1,228 km/h) by reaching 800 mph (1,287 km/h)!"
The car: It's 17m long, weighs 5,896kg.
It's a jet aircraft with no wings and some suspension, unfortunately: "F-104A-10 Starfighter with North American Eagle™ design suspension and systems integration."
The engine produces 52,000hp from a General Electric 1500 turbofan.

Fossett LSR

I unfortunately couldn't find much in the way of information at all, except that it's not really going. It also had a target of 800mph

Aussie Invader 5R

This will run 4 rockets producing 62,000 lbs of thrust in total. They'll be fired sequencially. It'll do 0-1000mph in 19 seconds. It's 15m long


Bloodhound
North American Eagle
Fossett LSR
Aussie Invader 5R


I'll probably add to this at some stage but this is just an overview of what the Land Speed Record is looking like.

[roost89]

I can tell you now where the name for Bloodhound SSC came from. Just asked the kind chaps via twitter. They say: The name came from Ron Ayers,chief aerodynamacist,who worked on the original bloodhound s2a missile. Started as a codename&stuck.

As this project is partly funded by the public. You can your name on the fin for a donation of £10 or more.
You can donate other amounts, as small as £1 but sadly, no name on the fin for that.

Not much more to update you on

[tok-tokkie]

They will use Hakskeen Pan (= Heel Flats in English) in South Africa for the attempt. Full details here.
I don't know why they are not using Bonneville. Their other consideration was in Australia.

[xpensive]

As impressive as the above contraptions can be, there are still just low-flying aircrafts to my mind,
what's the record for wheel-propulsion vehicles anyway?

[greenpower dude reloaded]

I've met most of the team over the last year they are all really great Ron Ayers in particular is a fascinating chap, we even got him to help my gf out with her first university assignment on Thrust SSC.

They sponsor(don't ask) our the electric racing series I've been bending every bodies ear about on here. We managed to get Ron, Richard and the full size model to our final.

Anyway make sure you go and say to them how fantastic a job Greenpower is doing when some of you visit the Autosport International show next week.

Make sure you say Hi to me as well if you are there on the trade day, I'm going to be on the Go Motorsport stand I can show you round a couple of fine examples of cars.

[Giblet]

Steve Fossett's entry was likely stillborn due to his presumed death.

"On September 3, 2007, Fossett was reported missing after the plane he was flying over the Nevada desert failed to return.[2] Despite a month of searches by the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and others, Fossett could not be found, and the search by CAP was called off on October 2, 2007. Privately funded and privately directed search efforts continued but, after a request from Fossett's wife, he was declared legally dead on February 15, 2008.
On September 29, 2008, a hiker found Fossett's identification cards in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, and the crash site was discovered a few days later. On November 3, 2008, tests conducted on two bones recovered about 750 feet from the site of the crash produced a match to Fossett's DNA."

[Giblet]

Eurojet EJ200 - 20,000lbf mounted above

Rocket Engine - 27,000lbf mounted below

750hp V12 engine - to drive the fuel pump and ancillaries like steering

137kg wheels spinning at 10,000rpm - 50,000 radial G

Aero load on bodywork - 12,5000 kg/m2

[JohnsonEvilTwin]

Ok impressive....BUT WILL IT FLY?

[autogyro]

Ok impressive....BUT WILL IT FLY?

Hope not.
Did you see the 'tiny' Union Jack on the nose.
Not the usual stars and stripes painted over everything.
That should be good for 500 mph on its own.

[roost89]

Giblet, use the search function man
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7750&hilit=bloodhound+ssc

[Giblet]

You sound like me

Thanks. Since the article was in a new issue of a magazine, I assumed it wasn't here yet.

At least my numbers I chased down that weren't in the article were right.

[DaveKillens]

very interesting, and impressive. I hope they achieve their goals.

http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/car.cfm

[RacingManiac]

Ok impressive....BUT WILL IT FLY?

Hope not.
Did you see the 'tiny' Union Jack on the nose.
Not the usual stars and stripes painted over everything.
That should be good for 500 mph on its own.

Everything is about that UK > US with you isn't it? I am not even an American but I can find that kinda annoying....

On the subject of Bonneville I think its not big enough. They didn't use Bonneville for Thrust SSC neither(Blackrock Desert was the location for the current mach 1 record). I think a while back they were holding an open search for viable spot for the Bloodhound SSC's attempt...

[roost89]

Thought I'd add to this with some info.

The car, since inception, has gone through no less than 10 different configurations each trying to improve on the last. The latest configuration is from Oct/Nov '09 and is the one you see in the image, provided by Giblet, above.

But that's not the exact final shape of the design. Since Intel came on board and upped the computing power of their CFD they've been able to increase the number of models they can run in CFD.
Some of the design process can be found here: The parametric study and the Design of Experiment. The parametric study was done so that they could find the factors that strongly influenced lift and drag. The Design of Experiment was used to find the "best" solution to the problems they had.

For the other teams involved.

North American Eagle has had it's engine installed. According to that update, they completed a test run but it caused some damage to their car. A test firing of the new afterburner will also be completed pretty soon.

The Aussie Invader is currently having its cockpit sorround built and the body is taking shape, the main support looks to be up as well. In this PDF You get a quick run-down of how the car is coming along. Also some neat wee pictures of how the fuel is stored in relation to the driver.

The Aussie Invader and Bloodhound are the only two, it seems, that are attempting get the 1,000mph (1,609km/h) record. The NAE is attempting to get the 800mph (1,287km/h).
Fossett's car is essentially out of the running, nothing has been updated on its page, so I assume it hasn't been sold and isn't being used.

[roost89]

Alrighty chaps. They have found a place where they're going to run.
It's the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa

Should be keeping more of an eye on this, however I keep forgetting however the chaps at Bloodhound are very kind on Twitter and answer ones, late, questions.