A British driver hopes to set a new land speed record and a development team is putting the final touches on a bulletproof hybrid rocket vehicle to withstand the potential damage inherent in traveling faster than the speed of sound.
The 7.5 ton Bloodhound SSC (which stands for Super Sonic Car) is being prepped for a drive in a quest to beat a 763 mph speed record set in 1997 by Thrust SSC. The goal is to travel at 1,000 mph.
At such a speed, the car's solid aluminum wheels will be spinning at 10,200 rpm — rotating at 170 times per second, generating 50,000 radial g at the rim, according to the Bloodhound Project, which is developing the supersonic vehicle.
The drag on the 44-foot long car, at such speed, is equivalent to 20 tons and if the car were projected upward, like a rocket, at such speed it would be equal to a 25,000-foot altitude ascension.
The car has been in development for seven years and is the brainchild of Andy Green, a 52-year-old former pilot who set the 1997 record in South Africa. The supersonic vehicle features a Nammo hybrid rocket and a cluster of three rockets and is now in a high-speed testing phase in Norway.
The actual speed race event, on a specially prepared lake bed in South Africa, is scheduled for 2016. The track area at Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape is clean of all debris down to the size of a pea. The high-speed testing, so far, has gone well, according to reports.
The car's development, which is taking place outside of Bristol, England, has required extensive research and unique material use, given that a mere pebble hitting the vehicle during the race drive time could severely damage the car.
As a Facebook page on the project relates, the car has been made virtually bulletproof to withstand the elements and potential objects it could come in contact with during the land speed event. The team has fired a gun at the car panels to ensure the car can withstand a rock hit or a wheel blowout event. The panels feature millions of woven glass fibers. The fibers will fray as needed and absorb energy if hit by a projectile.
This month, the development team at Castle Engineering began machining the 35-inch discs for the wheels of the car, a process that even took the team's components leader by surprise.
"None of us realized how difficult wheel development would be," said Conor La Grue.
The early research wheelwork was done by Lockheed Martin UK and Innoval Technology.
"There are parts of this car where if we have a problem, the driver Andy Green can simply shut them off and bring the vehicle to a stop. But if we have a problem with a wheel, Andy is going to crash. So the design and performance of the discs are absolutely mission-critical," La Grue explained.
