View Full Version : Bloodhound..
.. not strictly military, but still. :hmm:
BBC News - Construction begins on Bloodhound supercar (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12383551)
It will be powered by a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine bolted above a hybrid rocket. It will need a Formula One engine supplied by the legendary Cosworth group just to pump the oxidiser through the motor.
:}
Wrathmonk
7th Feb 2011, 16:02
So is Dead Dog on sabbatical or is this an "out of hours" hobby??:E
Rather him than me mind. Read somewhere that in his (current) world record run he need full lock to keep the car (aka rocket) going in a straight line :eek:
So is there anyone at Conningsby wondering where the engines on one of his Typhoons went?
1000mph in a car? Imagine the braking forces will be fun!
Apparently, it's a former development EJ 200 which would otherwise be museum bound. :ok:
Regards,
Frank
Geehovah
7th Feb 2011, 17:24
When I was a lad, this type of project kept us glued to the box for months
How did we get so cynical?
Best of luck to the team. Dead Dog's a good chap:ok:
BEagle
7th Feb 2011, 19:19
When I was a lad, this type of project kept us glued to the box for months...
Ah - the days of Bluebird as reported for little lads in the Eagle!!
When I was a little older than that :rolleyes: , Thrust SSC kept me glued to early morning Sky News with live reports from Nevada. Some of us answered the plea for sponsorship because we absolutely HAD to ensure that the first supersonic car on land was British!
Dead Dog fought TSSC through the sound barrier (a nice 1950s term..;) ) and captured the record when time and money were fast approaching Joker. Superb effort!!
But the car didn't achieve its theoretical design speed. Not because of any design flaw or driver error; I suspect that the bow shock pulverised the desert surface into a high drag thick powder surface (ever tried running across a seed bed?) and the drag on the tyres was much greater than assumed at supersonic speed. I hope that the team have examined this, because it could be a significant factor for DD to crack the Ten Ton target.
Anyway, good luck Andy!!
Dak Mechanic
10th Feb 2011, 07:38
The web site is very informative.
Bloodhound SSC (http://www.bloodhoundssc.com) (at the time of writing it appears to be broken!)
The pump that the F1 engine will drive is from a Blue Steel IIRC (well the design anyway), and the deceleration from Vmax by just shutting the rocket motor off is 3G (until it gets to about 600 mph).
Good luck to them - it's cool stuff!