Bloodhound SSC to make first land-speed record attempt in October 2017
01/08/2016
In October 1997, Andy Green went supersonic in Thrust SSC and set a new world land-speed record of 763.035 mph (1277.98 km/h). Twenty years on, that record remains unchallenged.
In October 2017, the team behind the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car aims to change this and has formally announced the start of preparations for its first world land-speed record campaign.
The recent signing of major deals means that the Bloodhound Project now has sufficient funding pledged to complete the car and start the countdown to high-speed testing at the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa, in Autumn next year. The identity of the new partner(s) will be revealed in due course.
With Bloodhound engineers returning to the project, having taken short-term contracts elsewhere, a major programme of work to become ‘race ready’ now begins in earnest.
The car displayed to widespread acclaim in September 2015 was a ‘trial-build’, without fluids, built in part to check the fit of over 3500 bespoke components. Conventional motor manufacturers typically build hundreds of pre-production prototypes to finalise details. As there is only one Bloodhound SSC, the project used this opportunity to see if the brackets were in the right place, key components were accessible for servicing and one-off parts were manufactured to the correct tolerances.
The team will now disassemble the 13.5 m-long streamliner, documenting the process in fine detail to create the Bloodhound user manual. Given that, at some point in the future, engineers may have to work on the world’s most complex racing car at 2 am in the Kalahari Desert, an accurate illustrated guide will be an essential piece of kit.
Where necessary, modifications will be made and new parts created before Bloodhound SSC is reassembled and transported to Newquay Aerohub for tie-down tests with its EJ200 jet and Nammo rocket system in place.
Bloodhound SSC will travel under its own power for the first time at Newquay in June 2017, in a slow-speed (circa 220 mph/354 km/h)shakedown test. This will also be an opportunity for the team to practice live-streaming data and imagery from the car, a key aspect of Bloodhound’s mission to share the adventure with a global audience.
By this time, the team’s Rapid Response and Turnaround Crews will have completed extensive training and be ready to support high-speed running in South Africa. This will include rehearsing ‘the pit stop from hell’: an intense 40-minute period between timed runs, during which the car will be checked, refuelled and prepared for the return leg. This ‘race within a race’ is crucial to setting a record – in 1997, a delay of just a few seconds cost the team the top prize during an early record attempt.
With the shakedown test successfully completed, Bloodhound SSC will be loaded onto a CargoLogicAir Boeing 747 freighter to be airlifted to Upington, South Africa. It will then be transported by road to the team’s desert base at Hakskeen Pan. Under the guidance of Operations Director Martyn Davidson, 16 container-loads of equipment will have been shipped in advance and a self-contained village, complete with a workshop and TV studios, set up.
The first practice loading of Bloodhound SSC into the 747 took place during the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday 11 July.
Project Director Richard Noble said: “This is probably the biggest moment in the project’s history. Before, we could only see a few months ahead financially but now we can put our foot down and really go for it!
“We’re in this position thanks to the incredible support of our partners and sponsors and the dedication and sacrifice of many people, including a skeleton crew who have held the fort and quite literally kept the lights on.
“Most of all, it has been the amazing public response that has sustained us. Thousands of children up and down the country are racing model rocket cars and there is tremendous public enthusiasm for the project wherever we go.
“We have come through this difficult stage wiser, leaner and fitter. Bloodhound is now in race preparation, which means the pace and the pressure will ramp up, but so too will the sense of satisfaction as we head towards our car breaking the sound barrier for the first time, with the world watching!”
The Bloodhound team scoured the globe to find the perfect location for this record attempt. It needed to be at least 12 miles long, 2 miles wide and perfectly flat, so the Hakskeen Pan, which is essentially a dried-up lake bed, was selected. During the world land-speed record attempt, Bloodhound SSC will accelerate from zero to 1000 mph (1600 km/h) in
55 seconds and back to zero again in a further 65 seconds, during which time it will cover 12 miles.
www.bloodhoundssc.com
