Bloodhound SSC

Very impressive but still a long way to go for the record - What can they do to get the speed up?
 
Feek said:
Very impressive but still a long way to go for the record - What can they do to get the speed up?
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Doesn't even have the second engine (the rocket) in it yet. Once they have enough information about things like aerodynamic performance and braking ability they can strap the other engine in and start really ramping the speed up.
 
Considering the target for this stage of testing was 500mph, 562mph isn't bad.
Even with titanium bodywork bending, sensors reporting incorrectly, engine start issues, it's a very good start.

Next year, bolt in the supercharged Jaguar V8 fuel pump, fuel tank and the hybrid rocket motor and go for 1050mph.
 
Compared with the first attempts at getting ThrustSSC up to serious speed, which revealed basically that the car was fundamentally unstable and was going to take all of Andy Green's skill and testicular fortitude to keep even vaguely straight, I would say testing Bloodhound is going brilliantly well :)
 
JRS said:
Compared with the first attempts at getting ThrustSSC up to serious speed, which revealed basically that the car was fundamentally unstable and was going to take all of Andy Green's skill and testicular fortitude to keep even vaguely straight, I would say testing Bloodhound is going brilliantly well :)
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ThrustSSC was a very big and heavy old girl. Bloodhound is almost half her weight iirc.

The small(!) scale tests in the mini of the rear wheel steering that ThrustSSC showed that it should have been stable, but with both the Spey engines vibrating the hell out of the rear, causing the titanium skins to warp and buckle around the wheels caused more than a few issues with it. Add to that the Active Suspension computer system kept crashing with all the vibration so they ended up locking it in it's up position.

She was a pretty early use of CFD and involved using a rocket sled to get confirmation on the aero, and even then she was very experimental. Craig Breedlove went another way and even with his experience with LSR cars, still had significant issues.

With the knowledge gained from ThrustSSC, massively better CFD and just 15ish years of aero research, Bloodhound just seems a much better overall package.
 
I'm really glad the testing has gone well. Are they finished this stage for now or do they plan to push even more?

I hope they get funding and go for 1000mph.
 
Going home as target was 600-650mph for data acquisition etc.

hopefully we will get involved again as a sponsor for the next stage next year when the rockets go on. 50000hp from engine alone up to 120000hp Total.
 
Yeah, they were after the round 1000Km/h mark for this stage last I had heard. Great to see how well it's going for them. Minor issues are all they've suffered so far. :)

Can't wait to see it loaded with the Nammo!
 
Andy Green is such a cool guy. I just saw that it's also wearing a South African flag, is this just because of the run location, or is there more to it? I'm going to do a bit of digging on this one.

 
It's prosibly money as well as they've been screaming for additional funds again.

To be honest, when I seen the thread pop back up I thought it was going to be bad news.
 
Jokester said:
It's prosibly money as well as they've been screaming for additional funds again.

To be honest, when I seen the thread pop back up I thought it was going to be bad news.
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It really is one of those projects that's constantly just hanging on by a thread. Their good intentions of using it as a STEM ambassador is also their biggest downfall, if this was pushed a lot harder rather than paraded around it'd have been done by now. They need to get Netflix involved and turn it in to a proper show imo.
 
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