Bloodhound targets 500 mph in South Africa in 2018

16/01/2018

The Bloodhound Project has announced plans to run Bloodhound SSC for the first time on its dry lakebed race track at Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa, in October 2018.

Following successful 200 mph (320 km/h) UK runway trials at Cornwall Airport Newquay in October 2017, the team will be targeting 500 mph (800 km/h), which is a key milestone on the journey to setting a new world land-speed record.

The ‘Bloodhound 500’ trials will test the car’s performance and handling during one of its most vulnerable phases: the point between 400 mph (640 km/h) and 500 mph (800 km/h), where the stability of the car transitions from being governed by the interaction of the wheels with the desert surface to being controlled by the vehicle’s aerodynamics. The grip from the wheels will decrease faster than the aerodynamic forces build up, so this is likely to be the point at which the car is at its least stable.

Data on the interaction between the solid aluminium wheels, which will be used for the first time, coupled with ‘base drag’ measurements, will provide ‘real world’ insight into the power required to set records. Base drag relates to the aerodynamic force produced by low pressure at the rear of the car, sucking it back. As the car approaches transonic speeds, this force far exceeds the friction of the air passing over Bloodhound’s bodywork.

Hundreds of gigabits of information will be gathered by over 500 sensors built into the car. This will not just be used by the Bloodhound Team; it will be shared with schools around the world thanks to cloud computing partner Oracle. Students will be invited to analyse the data and ‘mark’ the engineers’ homework in real time, as part of the world’s biggest science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) education programme.

Bloodhound Project organisers are inviting supporters to join them for this historic first foray into transonic speeds. A limited number of ‘all access’ places are available now for pre-booking at: www.bloodhoundssc.com/bloodhound500. Guests will visit the Desert Technical Centre, attend team briefings and meet driver Andy Green.

The Bloodhound 500 tests will be conducted using the car’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, normally found in a Eurofighter Typhoon, which produces a peak thrust of 20,000 lbs (90 kilonewtons), equivalent to 54,000 thrust hp or the combined output of 360 family cars.

The car will run for the first time with its solid aluminium wheels, specially designed for the desert surface. Measuring 900 mm in diameter and weighing 95 kg each, they are designed to spin at up to 10,200 r/min, which is more than four times faster than wheels on an F1 car at top speed. The result of 30 years of research and design, they were created by an international consortium and forged from one of the highest aircraft-grade aluminium alloys in the world: 7037.

The wheels have a V-shaped keel that digs into the alkali playa (baked mud) surface by 25 mm when the car is stationary. As speeds increase, the wheels will rise up out of the mud surface and plane, in much the same way as a speedboat rides up on the surface of the water. At 500 mph (800 km/h) and above, just a few millimetres of metal will be in contact with the desert surface and the giant aluminium discs will act more like rudders than the wheels on a conventional car.

The 12 mile (19 km) desert racetrack has been prepared by 317 members of the local Mier community. They have moved 16,000 tonnes of rock from 22 million square metres of dry lakebed, the largest area of land ever cleared by hand for a motorsport event. This is testimony to the partnership forged between the Bloodhound Team, the local community and the Northern Cape Government.

Engineering Director Mark Chapman said: “The track is 19 km by 500 m, with large safety areas on both sides. This allows us to lay out up to 50 individual tracks side by side. This is important as we can’t run over the same piece of ground twice because the car will break up the baked mud surface as it passes. We need multiple tracks so we can build speed slowly and safely, going up in 50 mph
(80 km/h) steps and comparing real-world results with theoretical data. Hakskeen is the perfect place to do this.

“The surface is hard, too, which means we’ve been able to design slightly narrower wheels that reduce aerodynamic drag. The desert surface also has a slight degree of ‘give’, which will work with the suspension to give a smoother ride, reducing vibration inside the car.”

During low-speed trials late last year, driver Wing Commander Andy Green, the current world land-speed record holder, drove Bloodhound SSC from a standing start to 200 mph in 8 s.
Andy Green said: “Bloodhound 500 is a key milestone on the route to setting a 1000 mph record. Building on everything we learned in Newquay last October, we’ll learn a tremendous amount by going fast on the desert the car was designed to run on. We hope you can join us in the Kalahari Desert to share this experience first-hand.”

www.bloodhoundssc.com

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