First public tests of the Bloodhound, a car designed to hit 1000mph, take place today

[midian182]

On October 15, 1997, British Wing Commander Andy Green set the current land speed record when he reached 760mph in ThrustSSC. Over 20 years later, he will be making the first public tests of a car designed to go over 1000mph. You can watch the event via the livestream video below.

On a runway at Newquay airport, UK, Green and his team will be putting the Bloodhound SSC through initial “slow-speed” trials in preparation for a new attempt at a land speed record in 2019. The last record was set in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, but this next run will take place on a specially prepared 11-mile track in a dried-out lakebed at Hakskeen Pan, South Africa. It’s hoped that the car will initially break the 800mph barrier, before ultimately reaching the goal of 1000mph.

"We've designed and built the most extraordinary, sophisticated, high-performance land speed record car in history. It will do 0-200mph in about eight seconds. For a five-tonne vehicle - that's eye-popping performance," Green told the BBC.

9 years in development, the Bloodhound uses an EJ200 Typhoon fighter jet engine. The public tests will evaluate its steering, brakes, suspension, air intake, and electronics systems. A Norwegian rocket motor, fuelled by a Jaguar V8 engine, will be added next year to treble the car’s power.

As the tests will see the Bloodhound traveling at relatively slow speeds, it will use refurbished rubber Dunlop tires from 1960s English Electric Lightning jet fighters. For the record attempt, all-aluminum discs will be used instead—a requirement for wheels turning at over 10,200rpm, or 170 revolutions per second.

Technical difficulties and financial problems have resulted in a number of delays over the years, but things improved after Chinese car manufacturer Geely stepped in to become the project’s “lead partner.”

Chief engineer Mark Chapman said that at the Bloodhound’s top speeds, a 1kg (2.2 Ibs) bag of sugar would weigh 50 tonnes, and that the car's full power will be equivalent to 180 Formula one vehicles.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/71596-first-public-tests-bloodhound-car-designed-hit-1000mph.html

 

[amghwk]

Sometimes, I wonder what is the purpose of this creation....

Will it help the human population?

Is it feasible for driving around, parking, etc?

Fuel economy?

Is it even practical to drive in the town or even the fastest highway?

Or is it just used to traverse the flat desert?

If I have even 1% of the cost of this project, I would have set up a new business and buy myself a GTX 1080 based laptop and deposit the rest in the bank with the balance.

Imagine what useful stuff you can do if you have 99% of the fund used in this venture.

 

[namesrejected]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

 

[stewi0001]

Sometimes, I wonder what is the purpose of this creation....

Will it help the human population?

Is it feasible for driving around, parking, etc?

Fuel economy?

Is it even practical to drive in the town or even the fastest highway?

Or is it just used to traverse the flat desert?

If I have even 1% of the cost of this project, I would have set up a new business and buy myself a GTX 1080 based laptop and deposit the rest in the bank with the balance.

Imagine what useful stuff you can do if you have 99% of the fund used in this venture.

They stated in the broadcast that this is to inspire people to get into engineering and science.

 

[stewi0001]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

So by your logic, airplanes that used internal combustion engines are cars that fail to stay on the ground.

 

[Uncle Al]

Sometimes, I wonder what is the purpose of this creation....

Will it help the human population?

Is it feasible for driving around, parking, etc?

Fuel economy?

Is it even practical to drive in the town or even the fastest highway?

Or is it just used to traverse the flat desert?

If I have even 1% of the cost of this project, I would have set up a new business and buy myself a GTX 1080 based laptop and deposit the rest in the bank with the balance.

Imagine what useful stuff you can do if you have 99% of the fund used in this venture.

I believe the best explanation is the quote from Sir Edmond Hillary when asked why climb the tallest mountain on earth. His response was simple: "because it is there" .....

 

[Vulcanproject]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

A jet engine is an internal combustion engine

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

They do have a land speed category for piston driven, internal combustion engines as well. I think the record for that is somewhere in the 400 mph mark.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Sometimes, I wonder what is the purpose of this creation....

Will it help the human population?

Is it feasible for driving around, parking, etc?

Fuel economy?

Is it even practical to drive in the town or even the fastest highway?

Or is it just used to traverse the flat desert?

If I have even 1% of the cost of this project, I would have set up a new business and buy myself a GTX 1080 based laptop and deposit the rest in the bank with the balance.

Imagine what useful stuff you can do if you have 99% of the fund used in this venture.

There doesn't have to be a feasible reason to do it. It's just in human nature to do things like this and that's reason enough. Why did we go to the moon?

 

[Nobina]

Sometimes, I wonder what is the purpose of this creation....

Will it help the human population?

Is it feasible for driving around, parking, etc?

Fuel economy?

Is it even practical to drive in the town or even the fastest highway?

Or is it just used to traverse the flat desert?

If I have even 1% of the cost of this project, I would have set up a new business and buy myself a GTX 1080 based laptop and deposit the rest in the bank with the balance.

Imagine what useful stuff you can do if you have 99% of the fund used in this venture.

They said it is supposed to inspire people to pursue engineering careers.

 

[amghwk]

Well, I guess, it's the same principle as the budget set aside for space exploration, while there are millions suffering of hunger on this earth...

 

[VitalyT]

a car designed to hit 1000mph

And that achieves what exactly? Give me a list of things it will contribute to scientifically, theoretically or otherwise...

Nothing, really???

A record for the sake of a record is a dumb-dumb waste of time. Thanks for nothing!

Ambition for the pointless, aptly named - Monocock.

 

[Kenrick]

Waste of time. They should do something that needs to fly vertically.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Pushing the boundaries, but not all internet keyboard warriors are in to it apparently.

 

[BrianMontanye]

Pushing the boundaries, but not all internet keyboard warriors are in to it apparently.

Not sure what boundary is being pushed here. Seems asinine really. If you really want to push boundaries, put wings on it and try to set the flight speed record. This is hardly a car or automobile.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Seems asinine really.

Yep! Especially when you have to be extremely lucky just to qualify to sit in the drivers seat. And then think about the limited locations to where you can possibly drive. Yes I agree with you on the boundaries being way to limited. Which at the end of the day never opens the door for anything.

Now if they can build a transit system such as the hyperloop. A system that would support the current land speed record, I might would understand pushing the boundaries. But then that changes the testing grounds.

 

[Forebode]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

Right, Combustion or electric and able to drive around any circuit of it's choosing, in a reasonable amount of time based on it's power. You could take a tractor around a circuit.. it's more of a car than that thing.

It's silly. What advances could they possibly reach that would trickle down to every day cars?

Do they talk about what could happen if a foreign object goes through the engine? See you have a better chance of that not happening when these engines are in their native area, the sky.

 

[senketsu]

Pushing the boundaries, but not all internet keyboard warriors are in to it apparently.

Not sure what boundary is being pushed here. Seems asinine really. If you really want to push boundaries, put wings on it and try to set the flight speed record. This is hardly a car or automobile.

an aircraft that can possibly set the flight speed record has as much to do with regular aircraft as this thing does to the cars on the freeway

 

[namesrejected]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

So by your logic, airplanes that used internal combustion engines are cars that fail to stay on the ground.

Nope. They are flying cars, ironically something that exist and yet the tech industry keeps claiming will be in the future..

Seriously though, this thing doesn't even supply power to the wheels to propel it. If you want to disagree about a jet engine being for airplanes that's fine, but a car should have the power transferred to the wheels to move. This is just an airplane that always has its landing gear down, and has no wings.

 

[namesrejected]

This is not a car designed to reach 1000mph... Its an airplane that fails to fly. I would be impressed if they would use an internal combustion engine instead of a jet engine.

A jet engine is an internal combustion engine

I think you know what I meant

 

[PoppaHank]

"to where you can possibly drive"? Take it to the supermarket to pick up a carton of milk? You can't "possibly drive" it to anywhere! That's not its purpose. They're building it to go as fast as possible, on wheels, on the ground, at a specially prepared course. That's its only purpose. Sorry if that offends you.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Sorry if that offends you.

It should offend you as well. After all they are wasting money on a project that has no future. And if you dig deep enough, you might find it is your money they are spending.

 

[Johnnyblaze1957]

This is a land based plane and is certainly no car this is just a total and utter waste of money with no benefits to any body at all.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Why is everyone so upset. This is a private venture. It's cost will be relatively small. The British government only have money in the education program, zero in the car itself.

Next time I see an article about nearly anything related with space and NASA you better all be in there asking for the eleventy billion dollars back in public money that you paid the past few decades. That or find out how much it cost the taxpayer just this one year for Trump tower security.

 

[captaincranky]

There doesn't have to be a feasible reason to do it. It's just in human nature to do things like this and that's reason enough. Why did we go to the moon?

So conspiracy theorists could claim it never happened!