Bloodhound SSC press release
A team of 300 previously
unemployed people funded by the Northern Cape
government joined some volunteers to clear 10 million square metres of desert
race track. With only two months’ work
remaining on the run-off areas, the team has cleared 6,000 tonnes of stones
from the 500m wide, 20km long stretch of desert. The clearing project spanning twenty-four
months is set to be completed within the next few months in time for the
BLOODHOUND SuperSonic Car to begin high speed testing on the pan during 2015/2016.
Andy Green, a serving officer with
the Royal Air Force, set a new Land Speed Record of 1228 km per hour in
October 1997. A small team lead by
former LSR holder Richard Noble defied the odds and the scientific convention
of the day to break the sound barrier – a feat many thought impossible.This record still stands.
Today, Andy Green, Richard Noble
and many of the Thrust SSC team are engaged on a new and far more ambitious
project: to build a car capable of
achieving 1000 mph (1600 km/h). However,
the BLOODHOUND Project is not primarily about speed. Rather, it is an international education
initiative aimed at inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and
mathematicians by demonstrating these subjects in the most exciting way
possible. The unique nature of the World
Land Speed Record, where the challenge comes from confronting the laws of
physics rather than other teams with similar technology, means the BLOODHOUND
Project can share all its data, designs, achievements and setbacks in the
process.
Consequently, the initiative is
already being followed in 217 countries with approximately 7-million learners
from 48 countries around the world registered to access BLOODHOUND information
and lesson materials in class. The team
has made presentations to hundreds of thousands of people since its launch at London’s Science
Museum
in October 2008.
According to Mrs Grizelda Cjikela,
Northern Cape MEC for Education, their collaboration with this ground-breaking
initiative underpins the province’s commitment to education and scientific
innovation. “Education is the key to
economic development, not only within the Northern Cape, but also the whole
of South Africa. A project such as BLOODHOUND has the
potential to inspire a whole generation of learners. As a government collective we are obligated to explore all opportunities to develop the
province as a hub for technological and scientific advances. In recent years, this vision has been
substantiated by not only being selected as the preferred site for the
BLOODHOUND attempt, but also by winning the bid to host the Square Kilometre
Array. With the recent announcement that
the province’s first university will be established in Kimberley,
we are firmly on track to provide our youth with the opportunity to build an
incredibly bright future,” stated Cjikela.
The Northern Cape
provincial government has actively partnered with initiatives such as
BLOODHOUND as it has significant socio-economic benefits for the province. Not only does the strong educational focus
deliver in terms of youth development, but BLOODHOUND will also make an
economic contribution while simultaneously boosting technological skills. The event will also create massive media exposure
internationally, which allows the province to showcase the unique diversity of
its tourism offerings. Since repositioning itself as a premier destination for
adventure and extreme sports, the Northern Cape
has already attracted niche markets such as skateboarding, waterskiing and even
motor racing.
Meanwhile, Dave Rowley from the
BLOODHOUND education team, is now based full-time in South Africa with the Northern Cape
Department of Education developing links with schools, colleges and
universities across the country. Already
45 local schools have signed up with the education programme. Numerous partners have been recruited to
support this programme, including Scifest Africa, Sci-Bono, Cape Town
and Sci-Enza science centre, the South African Institute of Mechanical
Engineering, ECSA, the British High Commission and the British Council. Many education suppliers have committed to
support the programme, including Edit Microsystems who will be supplying free
resources to schools, NEC and the Sangari Institute, who have recently launched
the BLOODHOUND Class as part of F1 in schools.
The Ambassador programme has also been launched and 15 engineers,
scientists and speed enthusiasts have been recruited to help promote and
deliver the education programme to schools across South Africa.
Andy Green said: “I’m standing in
the middle of the Hakskeen Pan on a perfectly cloudless winter's day
and
looking 10 km in each direction I’m standing in the middle of what is rapidly
becoming the worlds best race track. The team of 300 South African workers have
now finished clearing the main track 500 m wide and are now preparing the
safety areas. They have already cleared
10 million square metres by hand and left the most perfect surface to run on. They are all enormously excited about the car
coming to the Northern Cape next year, and having seen the work they’ve done
I’m equally excited about getting it out here and starting to run at some very
high speeds.” He continued, “We are enormously grateful for the fantastic
support from the Northern Cape, because
without their help we couldn’t have done this.”
BLOODHOUND SSC is the result of
remarkable engineering that allows the ultimate racing car to accelerate from 0
– 1000 mph (1609 km/h) and back to zero in just 120 seconds, while sagely
handling the phenomenal forces and loads acting upon it such as 47000 pounds
thrust (equivalent to 180 F1 cars) generated by its jet and rocket engines; 30
tonne suspension loadings; air pressures on the bodywork of up to 10 ton per
square metre and solid aluminium wheels, each weighing 105 kg spinning at
10,200 rpm and generating an extraordinary 50,000 G at the rim.
Currently well into the building
phase of the project, large sections of the car are in manufacture. UMECO will shortly begin the lay-up of the
carbon fibre monocell (cockpit) and the fabrication of the steel and aluminium
rear chassis has begun at Hampson Aerospace in the United Kingdom. The BLOODHOUND engineers will have a rolling
chassis assembled by the end of the year and aim to start UK runway
testing up to 200 mph (321km/h) in summer 2013.
The team will then decamp to Hakskeen Pan in South Africa to start the high
speed shake down runs.
For more information, visit www.bloodhoundssc.com.
All images courtesy of Emile Hendicks, Foto 24 in South Africa
Note to Editors:
Why Hakskeen Pan:
It may be the world’s most powerful land vehicle, but BLOODHOUND SSC needs a very special track to run on if it is ever to break records.
As soon as the project was launched, the search for a run site began. With the car designed specifically for the one environment in which it would run, getting the right location was critical. Clearly BLOODHOUND needed a wide, open area of very flat land. Given that the car runs on solid wheels as no tyres are able to withstand the colossal rotational forces, the ground surface was just as important; the priority was to find a dry lake bed, which would afford a slight agree of ‘give’ and thereby cushion the car’s ride.
Swansea University created a bespoke computer programme to scour satellite earth observation imagery and assessed over 20 000 potential sites. Green then flew across the world to check favoured locations in person and conducted details on-the-ground investigations.
After two years and several ‘near misses’, the perfect run site was identified: Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape. Supported by the Northern Cape government, the local community with some volunteers have almost completed the Herculean task of preparing the area ahead of its first high speed runs in 2013.
Driving at 1600 kilometres per hour:
Building and driving a rocket and jet powered supersonic car is an inherently high-risk undertaking. BLOODHOUND SSC is an experimental prototype challenging the laws of physics in order to travel one mile (1.6 km) in just 3.6 seconds, significantly faster than a bullet from a 3.57 Magnum. The only way to mitigate risk is to use absolute best practise and build-in safety at every stage: from tuning the aerodynamics so that they keep the car on the ground and stable throughout its speed range, through to the safe handling of the various chemicals needed to refuel BLOODHOUND during a record attempt.
The specification of the rocket, and the choice to use both jet and rocket power in the car, were both informed by the desire for safety.
Driver Andy Green will initially use the power of BLOODHOUND’s EJ200 Eurofighter engine alone to build up to 350 mph – the jet’s controllability making it easy for him to shut down in the event of a problem at relatively low speeds.
Beyond 350 mph, the Falcon hybrid rocket comes on stream, adding its might to the 22,000lbs of thrust produced by the jet. The combined 47,000lbs of thrust, approximating to 133,000 thp, will blast the car to 1689 kph (1,050 mph) in just 52 seconds.
The term ‘hybrid’ stems from the fact that BLOODHOUND’s rocket combines solid fuel with a liquid oxidiser, High Test Peroxide (HTP), to create its power. A staple of UK rocket tests for over forty years, HTP has an excellent safety record. A state of the art, 750 bhp Cosworth F1 engine will be used to pump 963 litres of HTP into the rocket during its 20 seconds burn – a flow-rate of 42.6 litres (75 pints) per second.
If the flow of HTP is throttled back, the rocket will stop burning, giving the driver a level of control which would not be possible with a conventional solid fuel rocket, the kind used to boost the Space Shuttle into space.