Bloodhound project back on track with new prime sponsor
07/11/2016
The Bloodhound Project has announced Zhejiang Geely Holding (ZGH) Group as its prime sponsor and Official Automotive Partner in a three-year agreement.
A leading Chinese automotive group, ZGH will provide technical as well as financial support to the project and promote its Inspiration Programme throughout Asia. The deal is the largest in the history of the project and means plans for challenging the world land-speed record in 2017 are now back on track.
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 manufactured to the correct tolerances.
The team has now largely disassembled the 13.5 m-long streamliner, documenting the process in fine detail to create the Bloodhound user manual.
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 engine and Nammo rocket system in place.
The Rolls-Royce jet is a tried-and-tested component, used to develop the production engines for the Eurofighter Typhoon. Development of Nammo’s rocket resumes this October and will culminate in ‘tie-down tests’, with the system installed in the car at Newquay Aerohub in July/August 2017.
With these successfully completed, the team will then do a slow-speed (circa 220 mph/354 km/h) shakedown test along Newquay’s runway. 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 familiarised themselves with their Geely vehicles and completed extensive training 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.
With the shakedown test successfully completed, Bloodhound SSC will be loaded onto a CargoLogicAir Boeing 747 freighter to be airlifted to Upington, South Africa. The team rehearsed the procedure in July of this year at the Farnborough International Airshow.
Bloodhound SSC 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 workshop and TV studios, set up.
The partnership will see Geely Auto technology being used within Bloodhound SSC, Geely Group vehicles being used in South Africa throughout record campaigns, design and engineering support being provided, where required, to help the project achieve its goals, promotion of Bloodhound across Asia and the team’s STEM Inspiration Programme rolled out across China.
ZGH is the largest privately-owned Chinese Auto Group and has grown rapidly over the last few decades. The parent company to Geely Auto, ZGH also owns Volvo Car Group and London Taxi Company. Geely Auto has four international research and design centres, employs close to 10,000 engineers worldwide and has also established universities, further education colleges and technology schools across China. Geely joins a distinguished roster of international organisations supporting the Engineering Adventure, including Rolls-Royce, Castrol, Rolex, Parker Hannifin, Atlas Copco, STP, Lockheed Martin, Nammo, Thyssen Krupp, Otto Fuchs and, last but not least, the British Institute of NDT.
Jaguar continues in its role as technical partner to the project and its V8 engine will remain the auxiliary power unit for the oxidiser pump of Bloodhound’s hybrid rocket.
Richard Noble, Bloodhound Project Director, said: “We could not have a better partner than Geely. Not only are they an international technology company with tremendous vision and capability, they share our passion for innovation and education. Their support, both technical and financial, means we can now plan next year’s record-breaking challenge with confidence. It also means we can take our STEM inspiration message to a vast new audience, which is great for science and engineering but also for promoting Great Britain.”
Li Shufu, Chairman, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said: “We are proud and excited to be part of this extraordinary team. Geely shares the same challenging spirit and passion for pushing technological barriers as the Bloodhound Project.
“Since day one we have been committed to breaking technology barriers at Geely and our work with the Bloodhound Project will help further our mutual technological breakthrough to an international audience. It also means we can tell millions of young people, both in China and around the world, about the opportunities presented by studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is what makes this ‘engineering adventure’ so special and why we wanted to be a part of it.”
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