Pebbles strike with the force of bullets when traveling 1,000 mph and tires can turn into "rudder" at that speed. To ensure that Andy Green's world-record attempt isn't his last ride, the Bloodhound Supersonic car (SSC) is getting bullet proof paneling and wheels that spin faster than 170 revolutions per second.
The Bloodhound SSC is out to best the Trust SSC's sound-beating, record-setting run -- achieved a top speed of 763 in 1997 -- shooting for a top speed of 1,000 mph to set the new land speed record.
Fellow Britons Trust SSC and SSC Programme Limited relied on three Rolls-Royce engines, one of which was developed for commercial airliners, to move faster than the speed of sound. Similarly, the Bloodhound Project is turning to a Rolls-Royce Eurojet EJ200 engine.
After the EJ200 engine gets the Bloodhound up to 300 mph, the supersonic car's Nammo hybrid rocket, aided by a V8 Jaguar Land Rover engine, will propel it beyond the speed of sound and up to the 1,000 mph mark, the Bloodhound project hopes.
But then again it could all go horribly wrong. The Green and the Bloodhound team are well aware of the risks, which are driving them to innovate at every level.
The Wheels Go Round and Round
The Bloodhound's wheels are in the hands of a consortium of engineering companies lead by Castle Engineering. The Bloodhound's aluminum wheel must stand up to several stressors.
Spinning at 10,200 rpm, 170 per second, the wheels will generate 50,000 radials Gs. With the amount of gravity it generates, a two-pound bottle of detergent would weigh as much as a semi-trailer truck.
"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," said Conor La Grue, components chief for the Bloodhound project.
The wheels must remain intact while being blasted by sand, grit and gravel -- the race track has been cleaned, but some tiny pebbles still remain. And the track must also remain intact when the supersonic car moves faster than they can spin.
Bulletproof Test
The Bloodhound project has been conducting ballistics tests on the supersonic car's panelings and, so far, the results should be good enough that Green doesn't have to worry about being machine gunned by pebbles the car kicks up or sniped by a piece of aluminum that breaks off of a wheel.
The Bloodhound's cockpit uses woven glass fibers, designed by Morgan Advanced Materials, which give just enough to absorb and spread the shock of projectiles without breaking.
Photo credit: Image courtesy of The Bloodhound Project
