Bloodhound Project
The Britons who built the first car to break the sound barrier are back with plans to shatter their own record in a jet-powered land-rocket they are betting will be the first car to top 1,000 mph. The current land speed record (LSR) for an earth-bound motor vehicle is 763 mph, which was set by Andy Green behind the wheel of the Thrust SSC back in 1997. Richard Noble, designed that car among others, and he and his driver are teaming up again to build a new supersonic car (SSC) to shatter the old record on its way to a new LSR of 1,000 mph. The new car is called the Bloodhound Project, the car's carbon fiber-cockpit is intended to slice through the air and reduce the shock of reaching Mach 1.4, 40 percent faster than the speed of sound. The vehicle will be airtight — otherwise air could be sucked out of the cabin like a vacuum cleaner. The car's wheels will be made of titanium to withstand the dizzying number of turns. Aside from the vehicle's five wheels — four for riding, one for steering — there is very little of the regular passenger car in the planned 42-foot-long "Bloodhound supersonic car." The vehicle will be powered by an EJ200 jet engine used to fly Eurofighter Typhoon airplanes, and come mounted with a Falcon rocket. The entire run, expected to last just under a minute and a half, will burn so much fuel that the car will end up weighing two 2.2 tons less than when it started. More than 300 companies and universities are taking part in the project, including Swansea University in Wales and the University of West England in Bristol, where it is based.
Stopping the vehicle is another challenge: Two parachutes will be deployed to kill its momentum, but it's only after its speed drops below 200 miles per hour that Green can hit the hydraulic brakes. So far, the car only exists on paper — but organizers said they hoped a model could be tested in October of next year.
