Landracing Forum
Thrust-powered Land Speed information => Discussions on absolute land speed records => Topic started by: Blown Alcohol 57tbird on January 01, 2009, 10:38:44 PM
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British holds the official ALSR record
The future is now and the official ALSR holders at 763.035mph in Thrust SSC here is there new effort Bloodhound SSC to gain the 1000mph ALSR
Enjoy both of there web sites through this one link
http://www.thrustssc.com/
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Times On Line article
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4996226.ece
(Interesting part of the article on Thrust SSC)
Since the car covers the length of four football pitches every second, he will require lightning reflexes. In 1997, as Thrust SSC passed through the sound barrier, it swung sideways and he locked the steering wheel at 90 degrees to recover.
Mr Noble said: “The car was probably a few thousandths of an inch out on one side and it blew 100ft left.”
Below is a neat shot of Andy in front of the beast
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NEAT LINK 57,GOOD INFO. :cheers:
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The Register UK
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/23/bloodhound_car_project/
Zer Customs
http://www.zercustoms.com/news/Bloodhound-SSC.html
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Automotive Design & Engineering
http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2008/10/29-bloodhound-project/
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Bloodhound Update from EPSRC
EPSRC Speed Freaks about Bloodhound project
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchHighlights/Bloodhound/About.htm
EPSRC The Science of Speed Bloodhound
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchHighlights/Bloodhound/ScienceOfSpeed.htm
EPSRC Bloodhound Press Release
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/PressReleases/Bloodhound.htm
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ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
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Interested? - seems to be a limited use of that title.
Why waste band width with posts like the last one. You don not want to see the absolute record go higher after more than 110 years of continuous challenge, so be it.
Malcolm UK
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Thanks Malcolm UK
Here is a video of a great driver in action and the fastest ALSR car on earth
Andy Green Fastest Man On Earth
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af0_1184881335&p=1
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Interested? - seems to be a limited use of that title.
Why waste band width with posts like the last one. You don not want to see the absolute record go higher after more than 110 years of continuous challenge, so be it.
Malcolm UK
Well he did say "Close to bedtime, G'nite" on another post about American road racing bikes. Given that the last post before his on that thread had a pic of a young lady in a bikini sucking a lollipop perched on a Kawasaki, maybe he needed to look at Richard's picture to get him off to sleep. :-D Sounds like it worked.
Robin
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"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the intention of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
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Noble Venture
By Anthony Howard
A little on the amazing man behind the British ALSR cars
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mem/02_write/10_noble.htm
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http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mach-1-4-Attained-By-A-Car-96423.shtml
Mach 1.4 Attained by a CarBloodhound SSC will reach 1,000 mph (1,610 km/h) By Dan Talpalariu, Science Editor
The Bloodhound SSC (Supersonic car) is currently in the making at the Swansea University, and will apparently be ready by 2011. It will attempt to break the barrier of 1,000 mph (1,610 km/h), while also taking down the previous record held by a land vehicle (763 mph or 1,228 km/h, established by Thrust SSC on October 15, 1997) and the low altitude flight record for a plane (994 mph or 1,600 km/h). Mach 1.4, the speed that Wing Commander Andy Green (the same pilot that drove Thrust SSC 11 years ago) will try to achieve, literally means crossing what would be the length of four football fields in a second.
This is faster than a regular pistol bullet, but experts believe that the 12.8-meter long car, weighing more than 6.4 tons, will make it. Although it's powered like a rocket, the device is more complex than one. Its wheels, of 0.9 meters in diameter, will spin approximately 10,000 times per minute, propelling it from 0 to 1,050 miles per hour in about 40 seconds, causing the air pressure at top speed to reach 12 tons on square meter on its titanium and carbon fiber body.
“Once you start approaching, and go beyond the speed of sound, you can no longer send a pressure wave forward to tell the air ahead of you you're coming,” shares research assistant Ben Evans from the School of Engineering at the Swansea University. “What happens is a big pressure wall builds up in front of you. Rather than air slowly and smoothly getting out of the way, at supersonic speeds, these changes happen very suddenly in a shockwave. What we're trying to understand is what happens when this shockwave interacts with a solid surface which is a matter of centimeters away.”
There's still much fine-tuning to do and a lot of aerodynamics design problems to work through, in order to compensate for all the inconveniences that such a speed may generate, especially in the sand of the desert. The number of wheels, their size and placement, or the shape of the “nose” (that has to minimize impact on the desert floor without lifting the car in the air) are just a few of the issues that scientists are trying to work out.
If the car successfully achieves its goal, it would prove essential in the creation of better designs, and in terms of fuel usage for aircrafts and land vehicles, but also a big step for medicine. Doctors are eager to learn from this test, since the pressure that Bloodhound SSC will experience is comparable with that of blood during aneurysms.
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http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=100499&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Science Minister To Promote 1,000mph Lsr Car Project As Inspiration To New UK Engineering And Science Talent
The Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) has invited Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation and bio fuel Aston Martin racer, to use the platform of the Autosport International Show at the NEC, Birmingham (January 8-12) to champion the 1,000mph BLOODHOUND SSC World Land Speed Record project. He will explain its relevance to the UK motorsport industry at this time and its primary aim of inspiring young people to take up careers in engineering and science.
Indeed, though at maximum speed BLOODHOUND SSC driver Wing Commander Andy Green will cover a distance equivalent to four and a half football pitches every second, travelling faster than a bullet is not the principle raison d’être of The BLOODHOUND Project. That is to promote cutting-edge engineering, science, technology and mathematics in the most exciting way possible, thereby encouraging more people to study these subjects and adopt related careers. Motorsport is a brilliant showcase for these subjects, with the Land Speed Record being the ultimate form of motorsport.
The backdrop to Lord Drayson’s speech will be an EJ200, a state of the art jet engine normally found in a Typhoon Eurofighter. This, combined with a unique 18” hybrid rocket, will accelerate BLOODHOUND SSC from 0–1,050mph in just 40 seconds.
The MIA is the leading trade body for the UK motorsport industry and its members are already involved in The BLOODHOUND SSC Project. These include MCT, who make the 700plus bhp V12 engine needed to pump one tonne of high test peroxide fuel into the rocket in under 20 seconds, and Advanced Fuel Systems who will provide the special storage systems required for the record breaker’s fuel.
The press call will take place on the MIA stand, No.8020, Hall 8 of Autosport International. In attendance will be the key members of the BLOODHOUND SSC team, including project leader Richard Noble OBE. During the conference Lord Drayson will present the team with their MIA certificate of membership.
BLOODHOUND SSC is also serving as a welcome catalyst for cross-fertilisation between the motorsport and aerospace industries, as well as promoting collaboration between industry, academia and leading research bodies
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It is interesting to me that they have chosen forged titanium for their wheels. Aside from the exorbitant cost, it will be difficult to find a vendor to make the large forgings with proper process control. Looking at the stress and the strength/density ratios of various materials, everyone on our team came to the conclusion that any metal was marginal over 800, while Breedlove's hybrid design had far higher margins.
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It is interesting to me that they have chosen forged titanium for their wheels. Aside from the exorbitant cost, it will be difficult to find a vendor to make the large forgings with proper process control. Looking at the stress and the strength/density ratios of various materials, everyone on our team came to the conclusion that any metal was marginal over 800, while Breedlove's hybrid design had far higher margins.
Eric
The titanium wheels are a very high cost deal and as you say finding a vendor to make the forgings with proper process control may be difficult. Richard Noble has all resources and funding for his project advanced technology and science
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Bloodhound appears in IET publications
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4340
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The titanium wheels are a very high cost deal and as you say finding a vendor to make the forgings with proper process control may be difficult. Richard Noble has all resources and funding for his project advanced technology and science
I brought this up since they say in their own release on the subject that they have no vendor yet. It's better to stick with readily available technology, especially when there are simpler and cheaper options available that are more than twice the strength.
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Bloodhound SSC in (AJC News)
http://www.ajc.com/ajccars/content/ajccars/content/stories/2008/11/04/car_rocket_supersonic.html
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/23/world/main4540922.shtml
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CTV News
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081023/rocket_car_081023/20081023?s_name=Autos
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Science News
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/10/23/the.groundbreaking.science.behind.what.aims.be.fastest.vehicle.all.time
The groundbreaking science behind what aims to be the fastest vehicle of all time
The world record bid again teams Andy, the current record holder and first man to drive a supersonic vehicle on land with Head of the Design Team and former world record holder Richard Noble. It is aiming to develop the first land speed vehicle that breaks the 1,000 mph barrier and will have its design underpinned through world-class research from some of the UK's top laboratories. The scientists at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have worked with the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and Fluid Gravity Engineering (FGE) to advise the world-record bid team on two of the most high-risk aspects of the world record attempt – wheel and rocket designs.
The wheels are arguably the most important design feature for the vehicle. To reach 1,000 mph they need to be able to rotate at 10,500 rpm without being damaged by the surface or any stones that they run over. They also need to be as light as possible to minimise steering and suspension forces, absorb all of the weight, down force loads and stresses and distribute this pressure without causing damage to the vehicle or the surface.
To make sure that none of these issues were a risk NPL spent the last year examining every aspect of the wheel design. Its materials experts researched the choice of metals and composites that could be used in the design, providing reports on titanium and aluminium alloys, and metal composites. This will help to advise the team on what materials are most compatible to the wheel size, brake and suspension requirements. NPL also worked with AWE and FGE in considering the effect that shockwaves would have on the wheel design, and advised on the best way to manufacture the wheels.
After advising on wheel designs, NPL and FGE then needed to examine how to provide the thrust and power to ensure that the wheels could rotate fast enough and sustain their speed – by thoroughly understanding the rocket design. The vehicle will have the first ever mixed powerplant of a hybrid rocket motor and a jet engine that is currently used on the Eurofighter Typhoon. It uses cutting edge jet technology to provide the initial thrust and the novel rocket impulse to achieve the 1,000 mph target.
As this is a totally new vehicle powerplant concept, NPL and FGE needed to develop a modelling tool to understand the hybrid combustion process and simulate the internal motor ballistics. This could then provide data for the design team to compare to their own tests done with 6 inch rocket firings and enable considerable developments to the basic hybrid design. This will help to optimise the injector design, oxidiser streams into the fuel grain, radiation transfer, regression rates and rocket motor exhaust. NPL also provided advice on the type of materials to be used in the rocket design, how high temperatures would affect them, what the best material would be for rocket nozzles and how all of these should be produced.
Brian Chapman, Project Leader for NPL, said:
"When you're travelling at 1,000 mph you don't want to be worrying about your motor holding out or whether your tyres are up to it. That's why NPL – with FGE and AWE – have spent the last year looking at every eventuality for both the wheel and the rocket motor designs. We have been closely examining the effect that materials properties will have on the rocket performance, the size and weight the wheels need to be to sustain the speed, and environmental effects such as a high speed impact with a small piece of debris could have. We're confident that our work will help to ensure that Richard and Andy are able to safely oversee another successful world record attempt for the UK, and go faster than ever before."
Richard Noble, Project Director of The BLOODHOUND Project, said:
"On behalf of The BLOODHOUND Team, I would like to thank NPL, FGE, AWE and the MOD for undertaking this valuable work which has underpinned the rest of the early research for BLOODHOUND SSC and given us the confidence to proceed. With the help of experts like these we are sure that our world record attempt can be a success, and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers in the UK."
The analysis is now being assessed by the BLOODHOUND design team and the Ministry of Defence as the funding organisation.
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The Engineer
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=308550
Building the bullet
The technical team working on the UK's new world land speed record bid has given The Engineer an exclusive insight into the huge challenges facing the project.
Andy Green will defend his title as fastest man on land in 2011 when he attempts to break the land speed record for a second time.
In 1997 the former RAF pilot whizzed across the Nevada desert in a jet-propelled car at 763mph. Now he is looking to reach 1,000mph.
The £10m bid has attracted support from some of the UK's top engineers and scientists under the umbrella of a private venture called the Bloodhound Project. The three-year mission, led by former land speed record holder Richard Noble, will build a 12.8m long, 6,422kg fuelled, jet and rocket-powered vehicle that will be as tough as a submarine and faster than a speeding bullet.
Researchers from the UK's National Physical Laboratory have been working hard for the past year to make sure that the wheels do not, literally, fall off the entire project. The NPL, with researchers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment and Fluid Gravity Engineering (FGE) have advised the world-record bid team on the Bloodhound supersonic car's wheel and rocket designs, two of the most high-risk aspects of the world record attempt.
Brian Chapman, project leader from the NPL, said the wheels are the most important design feature of the vehicle. In order to get up to 1,000mph, he said, the wheels need to rotate at 10,500rpm and they will experience 50,000 times the force of gravity at their rims. They would need to withstand any damage by the surface or stones they run over. Yet they would also need to be as light as possible to minimise steering and suspension forces.
The wheels on the previous world record-holding vehicle, called the Thrust SSC, would be inadequate for this project, he said.
'The Thrust SSC used aluminium alloy wheels and we didn't believe that material would be suitable to go another 30 per cent faster,' he said.
Materials experts at the NPL in Middlesex researched a choice of metals and composites that could be used in the design, providing reports on titanium and aluminium alloys and metal composites. Each design was put through an advanced computational fluid dynamics program developed at the facility.
The researchers considered the effects shockwaves would have on the wheels as the vehicle sped up and broke through the sound barrier. They decided the sturdiest design for the wheel was a 90cm diameter titanium disc.
The remaining challenge for the Bloodhound team is finding someone who can manufacture it. 'One of the problems with the titanium disc is we can't find anybody to forge it because it is so big,' said Green, a mathematician who is not only a driver but also an essential part of the Bloodhound design team.
'We are looking to get that forging done fairly soon so we can then find somebody else who can spin something that big and heavy to 10,500rpm to prove all the stress modelling works out.'
If the titanium discs do not materialise, the Bloodhound team is considering a lightweight composite version of the wheel with a carbon fibre interior and aluminium exterior. 'No one has ever made anything like that before,' said Green.
While the wheels are obviously vital, but the only way the vehicle will reach 1,000mph is with a new propulsion system, thus the concept of a new mixed powerplant of a hybrid rocket motor and a jet engine that is now used on the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Green said there has only been one other vehicle to break the land speed record using rocket propulsion — the US-designed Blue Flame in 1970 that used liquid fuels.
The new rocket motor, termed a hybrid because it uses solid and liquid fuel, 'is going to give us the raw power combined with the jet to get us up to a new record-breaking speed,' he said.
The hybrid rocket motor, which measures 46cm in diameter and 4.5m long, is the largest of its type the UK has ever produced. The jet will take the car from a standstill to 350mph, then the rocket will be used for a short burn time of 20 seconds with both engines accelerating the car to its peak speed.
The motor will rely on high test peroxide as its oxidiser and an aromatic rubber substance called hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene as the fuel.
A pump, powered by a V-12 petrol engine, will inject 50kg of peroxide, enough to fill four household buckets, into the motor.
A new modelling tool, developed by the NPL and FGE, enabled the design team to understand the hybrid combustion process and simulate the internal motor ballistics. This data was then compared to tests done with 15cm diameter models of the rocket.
Chapman said this information has helped the Bloodhound team optimise such details as the injector design, oxidiser streams into the fuel grain, radiation transfer and rocket motor exhaust.
'That's something you could only do by understanding the propulsion system and modelling it using algorithms and computational fluid dynamics.'
Whether all this work will be enough to help the Bloodhound car reach 1,000mph remains to be seen.
'However,' said Green, 'we have every reason to believe that all the technical solutions we've found so far can do that.'
Siobhan Wagner
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Laboratory Design
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000100&ISSUE=0810&RELTYPE=SOFT&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=AJ&CommonCount=0
World class UK research is helping to build the fastest car in the world thanks to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The BLOODHOUND SSC Project, led by Richard Noble OBE, is aiming to set a new world land speed record of a thousand miles per hour by 2011.
The challenge at the heart of the project is to create a car capable of 1,000mph - a car 30% faster than any car that has gone before.
An aerodynamics team at Swansea University—funded by EPSRC—is playing a vital role. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the team has spent the last year creating the predictive airflow data that has shaped the car.
In time, the research could lead to better vehicle or aircraft design, improved fuel efficiencies, and even new medical techniques.
"From the nose to the tail, anything that has any kind of aerodynamic influence we are modelling," says researcher Dr. Ben Evans—who as a school boy watched the Thrust SSC record on TV.
"It's the kind of thing aerospace engineers would have traditionally done in a wind tunnel, but we're doing it on a computer, a big multi-processor super computer. Wind tunnels have massive limitations. BLOODHOUND SSC is a car, so it's rolling on the ground and there are no wind tunnels in existence where you can simulate a rolling ground with a car travelling faster than mach one, faster than the speed of sound."
This 'mach factor' is the major difference between this vehicle and its predecessor Thrust SSC. Thrust SSC was a supersonic car in that it crossed the sound barrier and was supersonic for a matter of seconds.
But with BLOODHOUND, the target speed is 1,000mph—mach 1.4. It will be going supersonic way beyond mach one, and for a much longer time period, which means the supersonic shockwaves it creates will be far stronger than Thrust SSC, and they will interact with the car and the desert floor for much longer.
"Once you start approaching, and go beyond the speed of sound, you can no longer send a pressure wave forward to tell the air ahead of you you're coming," explains Evans.
"What happens is a big pressure wall builds up in front of you. Rather than air slowly and smoothly getting out of the way, at supersonic speeds these changes happen very suddenly in a shockwave."
Supersonic aircraft create these shockwaves and they dissipate in the surrounding atmosphere but still reach the ground as a 'sonic boom'.
Evans adds: "What we're trying to understand is what happens when this shockwave interacts with a solid surface which is a matter of centimetres away."
What the team do know is this 'interaction' creates a phenomenon known as 'spray drag'—a term first coined by BLOODHOUND team member and aerodynamicist Ron Ayers during the Thrust SSC attempts.
Spray drag is an additional drag component not accounted for in aerodynamic or rolling resistance theory.
"As the car interacts with the desert, and the shockwaves interact with the desert, they actually eat up the desert floor," says Evans.
"That introduces sand particles into the aerodynamic flow around the car and this interaction is not accounted for in standard CFD work. We plan to look at this spray drag phenomena, what happens and when, and how the sand particles impinge on the car."
The Swansea team is also looking at key systems in isolation. Work has already changed the car from twin to single air intake for stability.
The car will also sport solid titanium wheels with twin 'keels': "That was fundamentally an aerodynamic design decision," says Evans. "We studied different design options, a single keel running down the centre of the wheel, a design that had three keels and finally the one we went for with two keels. It was chosen as a compromise between lift and drag patterns and minimising the pressure disturbance around the wheel on the desert surface.
"Another thing we have been looking at closely is the exact nose shape. We want a nose that constantly generates a small down force on the front to help keep the car on the ground. But we're also constantly looking a how we can minimise spray drag and if we can constantly achieve a positive pressure on the desert surface leading up to the front wheels then hopefully the surface will remain intact until the front wheels roll over it."
But Evans and the team also remain focused on the wider aims of the project and the application of their research in other areas.
"The whole point of doing this is not just to create a fast car. We live in a carbon economy and lots of the issues we face will require engineers and scientists to solve them – part of this project is to inspire young people."
And sat at his desk in Swansea he has a constant reminder of the potential of CFD.
"Some of my university colleagues are working on blood flow monitoring through the arterial system and trying to predict when aneurysms will explode through pressure loadings.
"On one side of the office we have pictures of Bloodhound and on the other we have pictures of blood flow through the heart.
"There are the obvious applications in aerospace, but any application you can think of that involves fluid flow can be modelled using CFD. Biomechanical systems seems to be one of the areas CFD is being applied to now."
An 18 minute podcast featuring the science and engineering behind the project is available on the EPSRC website.
SOURCE: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
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Engineering EDGE
http://www.engineersedge.com/technology_news/posts/731.html
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EDGE New England (Jan 16 2009)
http://www.edgenewengland.com/index.php?ch=style&sc=life&sc2=news&sc3=&id=85803
Engineers plan to design, build supersonic car that will top 1,000 mph
The wheels need to be made of solid titanium, the cockpit must be completely airtight - and the driver’s nerves made of steel.
A team of British engineers recently announced plans to shatter the world’s land speed record by creating a car that can travel more than 1,000 mph - more than 200 mph faster than the record they set in 1997.
The man tapped to sit behind the wheel is Wing Commander Andy Green, who steered the "Thrust supersonic car" across Nevada’s Blackrock Desert to its record-setting success.
The Royal Air Force pilot said he wasn’t worried.
"The jets, the very high speeds, the complex systems, the quick responses, handling a 10-ton vehicle, that is something I’m used to," Green said in a telephone interview. "Mentally it doesn’t faze me; physically I’m used to it."
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.
"Your regular passenger car going down the motorway will go an average 1,500 revolutions per minute," said John Piper, the project’s engineering director.
"Our wheels are going 10,500 revolutions per minute, and for that reason we aren’t using pneumatic tires. They would disintegrate with the centrifugal force of it spinning at that speed."
Aside from the vehicle’s five wheels - four for riding, one for steering - there’s 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.
"Basically the jet engine is used to start the car rolling," said Daniel Jubb, the man responsible for the rocket’s design. Once the car hits around 300 mph, Jubb said, the rocket would kick in, blasting it, he hopes, to a record.
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 2.2 tons less than when it started, according to Piper.
At those speeds, the engineers said the slightest gust of wind or the most minute turn of the steering wheel could send the vehicle veering dangerously off course.
Piper said the biggest challenge would be "keeping the car stable, keeping the car on its wheel and steering straight."
"It should come as no surprise we’ve got a fast jet fighter pilot to drive the car," Piper said. "He’ll need all of his fast jet skill and reactions to drive what is a really dangerous vehicle."
Green said the steering wheel would be specially modified to make smaller adjustments to the car’s heading - nudging the vehicle’s wheels left and right to "act like tiny little rudders in the airflow."
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 mph that Green can hit the hydraulic brakes.
So far, the car exists only on paper - but organizers said they hoped a model could be tested in October.
"It’s still in its design stages, but we’ve got the engines secured," said Peter McAllister, a spokesman for the project. "It’s just a case of building it now."
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.
Green is still scouting for places to test the car out. He said years of unusually dry weather had degraded the Blackrock Desert, making it unsuitable for the super-fast trial. Meanwhile, he said he was up for the challenge.
"One of our senior doctors told me: ’The driver of this car is going to be cooked, vibrated, acoustically deafened, subjected to enormous G-forces which will both disorientate and threaten to make him black out,’ " Green said.
"To put that in perspective, that’s exactly what it’s like in a jet cockpit. I’m using the day job skills in what is the ultimate holiday job - driving the world’s fastest car."
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Curventa Go Supersonic with Bloodhound SSC
Curventa a London based product development company, can now finally tell the world about their biggest secret... Bloodhound SSC, the next world land speed record attempt from Richard Noble.
The Bloodhound SSC project is a three year mission to create the fastest car the world has ever seen - one capable of braking the 1000mph barrier. That's five times faster than an F1 racing car and even quicker than the bullet fired from Dirty Harry's Magnum.
Curventa have been working with Richard Noble's team from the very start, helping his chief aerodynamacist Ron Ayres develop his designs into 3D data and creating photorealistic images for marketing materials and capital finance. "We are one of the first product sponsors of Bloodhound SSC and continue to proudly support this project" said Ian Murison, Director.
Bloodhound SSC is being designed to hit 1050mph - that's 287mph faster than the current record, set by Andy Green in Thrust SSC in 1997. No-one has ever increased the land speed record by this amount and no aircraft has made it to this speed at low altitude.
The long term goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers - those who will help us overcome the many challenges of the future.
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Richard Noble, OBE
Challenger, Entrepreneur, Record Breaker, Motivational Speaker
http://www.richard-noble.com/
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New updates from Bloodhound
January 2009 - The character of BLOODHOUND becomes clear
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4343
Desert Search - Australia
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4341
Twitter/Bloodhound
http://twitter.com/BLOODHOUND_SSC
The Aussies are working on a car capable of 700 + miles an hour - the Aussie Invader 5R, now we have a serious race on our hands!
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More updates
Visioneering delivers full size mock-up components
On Thursday 22nd Jan 2009 The BLOODHOUND Team welcomed the arrival of the first full-size mock-up components to the University of the West of England (UWE) courtesy of Visioneering, - the engineering design concept company.
Working closely with the BLOODHOUND design team, Visioneering have produced the major components for a full size mock up of BLOODHOUND SSC, to be assembled at our temporary home at UWE.
Building the life-size replica of BLOODHOUND SSC will help the design team address any component packaging challenges ahead of building the real Land Speed Record Car.
The mock-up is comprised of a steel base system, CNC cut wooden frames and CNC foam EJ200, and will gradually be populated with space claim parts.
Visioneering have served the worldwide Aerospace, Automotive, Marine, Defence and Medical industries for over 55 years and, were commended for their contribution to the recent JCB Dieselmax land speed record project.
Newburgh Engineering Co Ltd to machine BLOODHOUND SSC
At almost 13 meters long with major chassis components of over seven meters that will need CNC machining over their entire length - there are only so many places in the UK with the equipment required to accommodate the machining of these large parts of BLOODHOUND SSC.
Newburgh, based in Rotherham, boasts an impressive range of capabilities; from rapid prototyping of small five axis parts to CNC machining of primary assemblies as big as those of BLOODHOUND SSC.
With customers in defence, aerospace, offshore and many other sectors as well as experience in machining parts for cruise missiles, torpedoes and complex aircraft applications, Newburgh are ideally placed to work to the very high standards that are essential on The BLOODHOUND Project.
Newburgh will be providing vital design for manufacture advice and CNC machining services to The BLOODHOUND Project.
Goodridge (UK) Ltd to plumb 1,000mph car
Exeter-based Goodridge (UK) Ltd, world leaders in fluid and gas transfer technology, have signed a product sponsorship deal to supply the gas and fluid transfer requirements of The BLOODHOUND Project.
With a car as complex as BLOODHOUND SSC - where we are moving fluids over its entire length - the transferring of: HTP Rocket Fuel, Jet A Fuel, Unleaded fuel, hydraulic fluid, oil cooling system, water for cooling, nitrogen, fire suppression system, breathing air delivery and rocket quenching systems represents a significant project in its own right.
Goodridge (UK) Ltd will also be supplying their team’s invaluable expertise and support throughout the project.
Diamond Point International (Europe) Ltd products to drive Computing on BLOODHOUND SSC
This week, we are pleased to announce that Diamond Point International (Europe) Ltd, Industrial computing specialists based in Rochester, will be providing key electronic control systems for BLOOHOUND SSC.
This essential support provides us with multi channel data acquisition capabilities and the multiple Athena II processors both critical components for the development of the Land Speed Record Car’s highly complex control system.
Diamond Point International (Europe) Ltd has been established in the UK since 1983 and is at the forefront of industrial computing technology.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm
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Structural Design
Mark Chapman
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/car/structural_design.cfm
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BLOODHOUNDSSC - Mock up build begins
Great videos of the mock up build.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4350
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Rainham Industrial Services joins 1000 mph engineering adventure
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4363
Rainham Industrial Services (RIS) announces its support for The BLOODHOUND Project; the science and engineering education programme and 1,000 mph land speed record attempt and lead by Richard Noble OBE and Andy Green OBE, current land speed record holders.
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Brian Lecomber
Nobody ever said that persuading a car up to a speed of Mach 1.4 is going to be easy.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4361
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Kate Bellingham: BLOODHOUND Education Ambassador
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/education.cfm
As a secondary maths teacher, an engineer, a TV presenter, and a promoter of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), I am really excited about the opportunities for education and engagement in the BLOODHOUND Engineering Adventure. My role is to spread the word about the project, with particular focus on the media. I am also going to work with STEM ambassadors all round the country who will go into schools and enthuse pupils on a personal level. As a Patron of the WISE Campaign, I am very keen that BLOODHOUND puts particular effort into engaging with girls.
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(New info on Blooodhound project)
Electronic control systems for BLOOHOUND SSC.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4346
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BLOODHOUNDSSC – Cockpit Fitting (Videos)
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4366
Lots of people were gathering again at the University of the West of England today, people from the University, a couple of sponsors, BLOODHOUND SSC team members, press people … and a bunch of very enthusiastic students. Everyone seemed to be crowding round the BLOODHOUND SSC mock-up which has come along in leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. The occasion was Andy Green trying for size the mock-up of the cockpit for the first time.
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Interesting video from Bloodhound news
BLOODHOUND...inspiring in all sorts of ways.
We know that BLOODHOUND is an inspiring project and it's great to see the way that our supporters have taken the spirit of the project out onto the streets. Check out this video of a 1K Club member's own rocket car.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4376
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New Bloodhound Updates
Video update from the Engineering Director of BLOODHOUND
John Piper, Engineering Director on the BLOODHOUND project gives us a video update on what stage the project is at.
Click on the video images to see the films.
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4377
Video update on brake testing, suspension and stiffness
Brian Coombs the senior design engineer (Mechanical) gives us an update on where the BLOODHOUND team are with brake testing and suspension.
Brake testing
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4378
BLOODHOUND, better by design
Mike Turner, BLOODHOUND'S industrial designer, gives us some background on his role on the project
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4379
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(Bloodhound update)
By Dr Ben Evans
Will BLOODHOUND Fly!?
The question of how we keep Andy Green safely pinned to the deck whilst travelling at almost 1.5 times the speed of sound is one that has been hanging over me for what seems like an eternity
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4397
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I just received my March 5 copy of Machine Design in the mail; it has an "artist's conception" picture of Bloodhound on the cover and an article starting on page 60.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
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(Bloodhound update)
By Dr Ben Evans
Will BLOODHOUND Fly!?
The question of how we keep Andy Green safely pinned to the deck whilst travelling at almost 1.5 times the speed of sound is one that has been hanging over me for what seems like an eternity
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news.cfm?widCall1=customWidgets.contentItem_show_1&cit_id=4397
I am REALLY hoping that they will do some upset analysis. According to the web site, their analysis shows that the body generates lift. It's round on top and flat on the bottom, it should not have taken CFD to tell them that it would lift. It also doesn't take CFD to redesign it so that it doesn't. They are canceling this lift and lift in other components by running slight negative alpha on their struts and canards. The downforce created by these changes is highly sensitive to alpha and the playa is NOT FLAT. Especially at those speeds.
I was contacted multiple times recently by a London reporter who had interviewed Dr. Evans. The reporter wanted me to respond to several criticisms that Dr. Evans had about the struts on the Breedlove/Fossett car creating the "shock waves that lifted the back end up". I asked the reporter to have Dr. Evans contact me with his concerns, which he has not. The struts were set at a negative alpha just like Bloodhound. While the problem is more complex than this, it bothers me that:
1. The Bloodhound solution is to have negative alpha on the struts of a lifting fuselage, while the Breedlove/Fossett car had a zero-lift fuselage and struts running at 1 degree negative alpha. Yet the Fossett project is criticised to the press as if this was not addressed at all.
2. There is this assumption out there among both bystanders and people who should know better that "SHOCK WAVES!!!!" lifted one strut and not the other of a vehicle traveling at M 0.89. Considering the struts had a leading edge sweep of 75 degrees and would not create compression waves until M 3.8, this is simply not credible. While the root and strut-to-wheel fairing interface do create compression waves, these pale in comparison to the hard shocks shown on Bloodhound's wheel fairings. I won't debate the design here, other than to say that I would design wheel fairings without these hard shocks.
3. I would be much more impressed with some data and discussion on the forces and moments at varying lateral slip angles and varying pitch angles that were encountered (and unplanned for) on Thrust 2 and SSC. This should rationally lead to some explanation of the control forces and control displacements needed to recover from various transients. Add inertia effects and this is stability and control analysis. I have always said it would be a good exercise to go back and put SSC's actual dynamic behavior into a full motion simulator and see how many pilots could hold onto the instability with the lateral force from the car telling the pilot it's going the wrong way. Andy was a lot better than most people realize.
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Without Andy (Green) there would be no record........... :roll:
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A note from the "Dark Horse".
This Saturday we tied our horse to our favorite tree at Spanaway Airport and ran some 100%
engine runs. The purpose was to verify that all our electrical systems are working as designed by
our hard working electronics guys. All voltages were right on the button. We've tested our GPS and wireless ethernet systems and they also work prefectly so we know we can get real time data transmitted to our base station with finite accuracy. We also installed a solid state drive (disk drive) into the onboard computer so we will eliminate issues with heat (it is now water cooled) and vibration. We did three seperate startups and a total of 6 full power pulls (without afterburner) and all systems worked to perfection. At the conclusion of the engine tests, we sacrificed two explosive charges and deployed our parachutes by shooting them about 30 feet. Our next few weeks are a matter of getting busy with the logistics in preparing for our next test runs which are profiled up to mach .7 in about late May or June. We haven't disclosed the test location.
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Get'em Ed
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A note from the "Dark Horse".
We also installed a solid state drive (disk drive) into the onboard computer so we will eliminate issues with heat (it is now water cooled) and vibration.
We install electronics inside metal boxes on top of poles at military installations all over the world (overseas included). To keep them cool (it gets pretty hot in some parts of the world) we have a small AC unit installed in the box. Think small IGLOO cooler plugged pieces that run on 12V. :wink:
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Ed, best wishes to you and your entire crew. It's great to hear the progress you're making. Keep up the reports, too.
And to everyone else on the Forum: Ed's project is completely funded, you know, by the winnings one of his crew members received from the 50/50 at the N W Reunion.
Okay, almost completely funded.
Well, if the truth be told, he won enough cash to at least pay off the rest of the crew so Mama didn't hear he had won.
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So this guy at work sees the picture of my motorcycle at work and I find out he is going to be at the El Mirage work week end. He tells another guy at work who comes over to talk to me and it turns out he's going to go to El Mirage also.
He's looking at the calendar and says that he's going to a rocket club meeting the week before. So we get to talking about rockets.
Turns out he knows a guy, who knows a guy, who knows the guy that's making the solid rocket for the BloodhoundSSC.
And he has pictures. Sadly, the guy making the rocket doesn't want the pictures posted. The hybrid booster sections are massive! They looked to be about 20 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long. I don't know how long the full rocket is, but when you figure that every time they run the car they have to replace the rocket sections. There were a ton of sections in the pictures. They were mixing chemicals in what looked like an industrial bread mixer. He had a movie of a test firing of a single section. Whooo!
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It is interesting to me that they have chosen forged titanium for their wheels. Aside from the exorbitant cost, it will be difficult to find a vendor to make the large forgings with proper process control. Looking at the stress and the strength/density ratios of various materials, everyone on our team came to the conclusion that any metal was marginal over 800, while Breedlove's hybrid design had far higher margins.
Eric
The titanium wheels are a very high cost deal and as you say finding a vendor to make the forgings with proper process control may be difficult. Richard Noble has all resources and funding for his project advanced technology and science
I attended a Royal Society of Aeronautical Engineers lecture last week given by Mark Chapman here in Bristol UK where the Bloodhound will be built. Mark is the Chief Designer on the project.
The design of the wheels is now finalised & they will be manufactured here in Bristol at the local Rolls Royce factory, Rolls are a major sponsor of the project & will absorb the cost of the design & manufacture!
The level of sponsorship lined up for this effort includes the Ministry of Defence & makes even F1 look like a poor relation! For instance the MoD has made 3 Eurofighter Typhoon engines available to them along with a full support crew!
Interestingly the main team objective as stated by Mark is not to exceed 1000mph, but to generate interest in British schoolchildren between the ages of 6 & 10 to take up careers in maths, physics & associated engineering subjects. That is how they have managed to gain sponsorship from the government. 1050mph is the second objective.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8343063.stm
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Finalised design - jet now above rocket
Finalised build location - Bristol
Finalised run site - Hakskeen Pan South Africa
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/
Cheers
Robin
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I got to meet the team a few weeks back, it was a great day out.
I can't post pics but this link will take you to a thread on another forum where a mate posted pics.
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=60573.0
Sam. :cheers:
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Finalised design - jet now above rocket
Finalised build location - Bristol
Finalised run site - Hakskeen Pan South Africa
In reverse order...
Hakskeen Pan: Nice playa. Despite the BSSC surveys, I have seen the same hard conditions at DV as well as soft conditions that they observed. It depends on season and drying conditions vs. the last flooding. For reference, Elmo in March, 2008 was hard as a rock and we left virtually no tracks towing the Fossett car around: I could push it with one hand (OK, I put some weight into it). After 9 years with no flooding, we sank 3" into Black Rock in October, 2007 and needed a pickup running 30% throttle just to get un-stuck.
Bristol: I applaud Richard for securing the use of a large and well built facility. It certainly lends itself to visitors and educational opportunities, as well as having plenty of space for the build.
Jet-over-rocket: Why are there 3 engines and an explosive monofuel (HTP) when one engine with no hypergolics would be safer, cheaper, and faster?
A side note: anyone interested in using HTP (high test peroxide) should research the database of accidents and safety issues associated with this rather dangerous substance. I have personal experience with peroxide and it going off uncontrollably and unpredictably.
I wish the Bloodhound team and Andy in particular all the best of luck and hope for their safe success in their endeavors.
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Eric,
good luck with your project as well. The fact that LSR projects aren't identikit racers like F1 or (whisper it in case Kent is reading) NASCAR, is one of the joys of this sort of challenge for me. I saw a picture of John Cobbs' Naiper Railton LSR car in a schoolbook when I was 4 and it was so different that I have been hooked ever since. As long as those involved are serious about addressing the safety issues as well as the performance issues then the more divergence of design the better as far as I'm concerned.
Cheers
Robin
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Here is a link to a neat article about the Bloodhound 1000 MPH effort.
http://www.nhra.com/blog/dragster-insider/