http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/

Know they’ve done it before, and it would be absolutely awesome if a British team smashed their own record… Again.

So… are they?

I don’t know.

magic 8 ball says “there is always a possibility”.

Wind power is where its at
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pipGWQmerEQ&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I’d love it if they do, as much as anything because my old DT teacher from high school (20+ years ago) is the materials guy on the education team (http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/project/team/gerry-heather) and I’d really like to see him be a part of the successful mission. Top bloke and really inspirational teacher. Although when I spoke to him recently I still ended up calling him “Mr Heather” for some stupid and inexplicable reason……

Know they’ve done it before, and it would be absolutely awesome if a British team smashed their own record… Again.

So… are they?
Who can possibly answer that? The Bloodhound SST team are supremely competent, and have a huge amount of tech backing them, but , and it’s a very big but, they are going into the very ragged edge of what’s actually achievable with a high-speed wheeled vehicle. There are so many variables, and the tiniest little thing could escalate into a catastrophic crash; look at the video of Bluebird on Coniston Water to see what can happen just by being in a bit too much of a rush to do the return run, because it’s on the clock for a record run. A small ripple from Bluebird’s first run caused her to tramp then lift off and somersault, and that was at ? the speed that Bloodhound will be doing!
Don’t get me wrong, I want, with all my heart and soul, for them to succeed, and to do it safely and with style, but, with such extremes of speed, etc, it has to be recognised that what they are doing is incredibly chuffing dangerous!

i’ve done a bit of work on bloodhound! 🙂

i even got to chat with Richard Noble – who is very entertaining…

he says:

“obviously we don’t know, but if anyone can do it we can, and we’re having lots of fun in the process, it’ll almost be more fun if we don’t succeed, because then we get to have another go – the whole point of the bloodhound project is to get 8yr olds excited about engineering, if we don’t succeed then it’s something for them to aim at, knowing that someone got close…”

i’m paraphrasing him a little, but that’s more or less what he said to me.

I think she’s a thing of beauty too. Would have liked some British racing green on her though :p !

its going to be interesting to see how they solved certain problems i remember the last wheels (pretty essential items really) were on the limit of what was possible for something going round and round and round iirc cracks were apparent after the first run and there was very little in engineering materials terms at the time that could be done to stop it

the most awesome thing was how much the sound barrier car litterally squashed (pulverised) the ground due to pressure

its one of those things that as much as you wish them all the best but at the back of my mind it really is a brave chap that gets in a vehicle knowing its only the tiniest of tiny things that if it has the opportunity will go wrong in a very very short timescale

I fear this could all end in tears.

Definitely ambitious jumping 200mph further than the last record. 1000mph on land will truly be remarkable. Something Britain can be very proud of when it happens.

I believe it will happen, and aside from the normal hiccups, I don’t think anything big will go wrong.

I love how they need a cosworth v8 f1 engine just to power the oxidiser pump for the secondary rocket engine 😀

GF’s dad does the website for this

EDIT: or some of it. Too boring to ask what he actually does tbh

If this team can’t do it then I honestly believe that no-one else can.

It’s an amazing and inspirational project and I wish them all the luck in the world. I have been and will be watching them all the way!

Woooooo Hooooooo all that thrust, all that Engineering and 1000mph – what could go wrong 😀 8)

It’s just so awesome! I really hope that it’s having a positive effect on youngsters regarding engineering and science and that, if it doesn’t go to plan, no-one dies in the process! Having followed it since the early stages I’m fairly hopeful…

I love this kind of thing. I really hope it works. The book on Thrust SSC is superb. Can they do it? Probably. They are constantly learning. When researching the data from Thrust2 for the SSC car, they found an extra 8mph would have flipped the car pulling 50g! They are also asked for aircraft data at supersonic speeds at ground level. No one knows, as the existing data doesn’t go high enough

I know a few of the team and have met Richard Noble a couple of times now. They are a proper bunch of British blokes and boffins who are doing their homework. If it can be done, they will do it.

Absolutely fascinating and inspiring. I really, really hope they manage to do it.

My 12 year old lad’s a sponsor 😀 Cost him a tenner to get his name on the tail fin (In very small writing) 8)

Dave thats friggin awesome!

It all seemed a bit pie in the sky until they ran the rocket a month or so ago.

AWESOME.

As above, if anyone can; it’s them.

Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, hugely impressive feat of engineering and more faith than most people placed in science than most have in their religions/family/selves, love it 🙂

bloodhoundssc.com/donate-join

There you go. Put your name / kids name / schools name / business name on the car.

The Beeb’s website hosts updates and progress reports, apparently the test rocket burn showed up some issues (it could have gone bang), but as the article says that’s what testing is for and it’s a relatively easy fix.

It’s official everyone – Ming the merciless, from planet mongo is aiding the Bloodhound SSC team with their rocket development!

How much ming tech has gone into the Bloodhound I wander?

😆

I reckon they can.
I love the idea that the military had the foresight to notice there weren’t enough engineers coming out of the education system, so thought of a way to encourage kids to get into it. “Lets build a really, really fast car, with rockets, and jets and F1 engines and stuff”
It works. My 4-year old son is fascinated by it.

And for the record, I reckon its safe. They’re aiming for 1000mph safely, not aiming to go as fast as possible on the limit of everything. I’m sure if let loose, Bloodhound could probably go faster, but might explode if something went wrong.

Yum yum yum yum yum!

bloodhound shaped gummy bears… yum.

I love the idea that the military had the foresight to notice there weren’t enough engineers coming out of the education system, so thought of a way to encourage kids to get into it. “Lets build a really, really fast car, with rockets, and jets and F1 engines and stuff”

It was a happy coincidence – that was never the intent at the start. However, now that they have linked it with education, bloody clever, lots of schools and colleges are well into it, which is a very good thing indeed.

Thrust SSC was the most exciting thing to have happened in a while in British mechanical engineering when I was doing my degree – I must have seen the documentary three times that year. Great to hear that Bloodhound is firing up so many in education, from uni students down to primary schoolchildren!

Just watched that Sailrocket clip. 65 knots is f**king barking…

Interesting article in today’s Western Daily Press about the clearing of the strip of desert for the run:
http://m.thisisbristol.co.uk/story.html?aid=17524508

The BBC documentary on Thrust SSC. Supersonic Dreams

Thanks for that p20, will enjoy watching that later with a good old british (indian) brew lol!

Funny you mention that count as I was looking for references to the Bloodhound project on American news sites. I always find it interesting what other nations think of things like that. Couldn’t find any reference at all apart from car sites, but I suppose to them it’s not news until they break the record.

I think it’s pretty awesome that despite our size we are still the world speed record holders for a few things. Don’t the Americans generally love that kind of stuff?

I think they hold another land speed record for the wheel driven category with some turboshaft car I was looking at the other day though.

*Here it is: Vesco Turbinator – 470mph

I did have it on DVD somewhere…

Love that sailing clip! Fast as HOLYCRAPOLA!

re Bloodhound, I met Noble many, many years ago, at this period;

I sat in the cockpit and he chatted for a while. Even at the young age I was then, I could see he was rather a driven lunatic! I have friends who know Andy Green and they say the same of him – Nutter, but a very focused and driven nutter.

Good luck to them!

I’ve also got Dieselmax to read at some point. The one I struggle to get my head around is the windpowered lsr.

Just watched the Sailrocket vid; jeeeeeeezus! I’ve seen a shorter vid, but that’s insane 😯

My Bloodhound book arrived today 😀 8)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QlSLHiTNZDA[/video]

Another update. That’s my name on the tail fin 8)

I think they’ll do it, or at least get within a gnat’s todger. The biggest challenge is getting through the sound barrier. In some ways Thrust 2 carried more risk because it was trans-sonic. Once you get past the transonic region and into the supersonic region then you get rid of a lot of complications and unpredictability. If you look at aircraft race to break the sound barrier, it was getting through the transonic region that was the most difficult thing to solve and where the aircraft crashed. But once Mach 1 was exceeded, Mach 2 very quickly followed. Granted there are added complications with the proximity to the ground, but they would have learned a lot with Thrust 2 so must think its possible or there would be no Thrust SSC. They must think that the risks are within acceptable boundaries. I’m sure no-one on the team is seeing this as a suicide mission. Risky yes – and everything has to work flawlessly, but they must be pretty sure its possible. The book has made it onto my Christmas list!

I went to the first supporters club day (quite a few years ago) with eldest lad – think he was about 8 at the time. I was quite amazed that he happily sat through a day in a University lecture theatre with no fidgeting or moaning.

He was absolutely spellbound when Richard Noble and Andy Green came in and were mingling round all day (both are rather larger than life characters). Quite funny to see him go totally starstruck and mute when he finally had the chance to speak to them 🙂

Having seen the detail of the planning, I’m certain they’ll have put some deep thought into handling the situation (with all these kids involved) if it all did go horribly wrong. Also pretty sure that it will be a methodical and incremental buildup to the LSR and beyond.