Bloodhound car aiming for land speed record unveiled in London

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. The design team behind the Bloodhound Super-Sonic Car has put its near-complete vehicle on show in London.

As “Armenpress” reports, referring to BBC, Bloodhoundhas been built to smash the current land speed record of 763mph (1,228km/h) set by another British car, Thrust SSC, in 1997.

What is on show at the East Wintergarden venue represents about 95% of the finished article.

The new machine is due to start running next year on a special track that has been prepared for it in South Africa. The aim at first will be to do 800mph (1,287km/h). The team wants to do this on 15 October, 2016. But the goal eventually is to push the record above 1,000mph (1,610km/h). This could happen in 2017.

It has taken eight years of research, design and manufacturing to get to this stage. His Thrust SSC vehicle broke the sound barrier in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, US, when it traversed the "measured mile" at an average speed of 763.035mph (1,227.985km/h) on 15 October 1997.

Once the event is over, Bloodhound will be taken back to its Bristol design HQ to await the integration of the outstanding components. To reach 1,000mph, the vehicle will need to produce about 21 tonnes of thrust (210kN).

This will come from a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, working in tandem with a hybrid rocket from Nammo of Norway. The third power unit in Bloodhound is a supercharged Jaguar V8. Its job is to turn the pump that forces liquid oxidiser into the rocket's fuel chamber.

And if there is technical uncertainty hanging over the project right now, then it has to do with the pump system and the rocket.