As much as has been said over the last few years about the Bloodhound SSC, the car proposed by a British team to not only eclipse the current ultimate land-speed record, but obliterate it by running 1,000 MPH, the car itself has only existed in engineering drawings, computer-generated concept sketches, and as a full-size mockup displayed last year in London. Until now, that is.
The team announced this week that three manufacturers – Hampson Industries, Cosworth, and Advanced Composites Group – have started construction of the 42-foot-long, 14,160-pound Bloodhound SSC, beginning with its primary structure:
With 64 years’ experience supplying precision fuselages for the world’s leading aerospace organisations, Hampson has unrivalled expertise with complex aluminium, steel and titanium structures. However, creating this supersonic prototype will test even their skills to the full.
The steel-lattice rear chassis not only has to contain 47,000 lbs of combined thrust (equivalent to 133,000hp) from the car’s Eurojet EJ200 jet and Falcon Project hybrid rocket, it must also cope with 30 tonne suspension loadings, air pressures on the bodywork of up to 13 tonnes per square metre and substantial additional loads generated by the tail fin, air brakes and parachutes.
Advanced Composite Group (ACG) is creating the front section of the car for Q1 2012. With a 30-year pedigree acquired in the demanding markets of Formula One, ocean-going racing yachts and aerospace, ACG is ideally positioned to deliver the composite design and manufacturing expertise required to build this astonishing vehicle.
The Northamptonshire-based team [at Cosworth] is supplying BLOODHOUND with vital data logging and telemetry systems, as well as their state-of-the-art CA2010 F1 engine. This will drive the Falcon rocket oxidiser pump via a BLOODHOUND-designed gearbox featuring gears by Xtrac and an AP Racing clutch.
Three years in the planning, the Bloodhound SSC program – headed by Project Director Richard Noble – aims to send pilot Andy Green hurtling across a dry lake bed in South Africa sometime in late 2012 or 2013. Noble and Green both set the current land speed record of of 763.035 MPH in 1997. The project also includes an education component – the Bloodhound Education Programme – intended to inspire British schoolchildren to become engineers by following the progress of the car.
