The British attempt at setting 1000 MPH land-speed record with the Bloodhound SSC jet and rocket powered car took a step closer ...
The British attempt at setting 1000 MPH land-speed record
with the Bloodhound SSC jet and rocket powered car took a step closer to completion with the
integration of the supersonic Eurojet EJ200 jet engine, that powers the
Eurofighter Typhoon multi role fighter jet into the chassis of the world’s
fastest car.
The pencil shaped car weighting 7.5 tonnes, is designed to
reach 1,050 mph (1,690 kmph). It has a slender body of approximately 13.4 m
length with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally
within wheel fairings.
The vehicle is called the Bloodhound SSC after the Ron Ayer’s
first missile the Bristol Bloodhound 2, an incredible British surface to air
missile developed during the 1950s, that could accelerate from standstill to
Mach 1 in 2.5 seconds.
British Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot Wing Commander Andy
Green, who also holds the current speed record of 763 mph (1228 kmph) using the
first supersonic car Thrust SSC in 1997 will be at the controls.
The car is scheduled for completion by the end of July 2015,
with an 800 MPH test run in South Africa taking place in September. The 1000
MPH attempt will be made in 2016.
Bloodhound integrates a mix of automotive and aircraft
technology, a hybrid construction with the front half being a carbon fibre
monocoque like a racing car and the back half being a metallic framework and
panels like an aircraft.
This provides the driver with a very, rigid safety cell. It is also the most efficient way to form the
complex curvature at the front of the car ahead of the cockpit and main jet
intake. The rear of the car is split along its centreline.
The upper chassis is of a rib and stringer type, typical of
aerospace construction. The ribs are machined from aluminium billet and the
stringers are fabricated in Titanium. The outer skin is also Titanium, this has
been necessary to reduce the weight at the rear of the car whilst maintaining
stiffness.
The upper chassis mounts the Eurojet EJ200, the intake duct
and the fin.
The lower section consists of a series of aluminium frames
and bulkheads that are skinned in steel. The lower structure mounts the
auxiliary power unit, the jet fuel tank and the rocket system.
The last portion of the lower structure forms the rear
subframe and it is on this that the rear suspension mounts, together with the
rocket thrust ring and the parachute cans and attachment.
Winglets has been provided to add
a degree of control of the lift and downforce.
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| EJ200 integrated |
Approximately half the thrust of Bloodhound SSC is provided
by the loaned Eurojet EJ200, which is four metres long and produces 90 kN
(20,233 lbf) thrust with reheat. the engine is coupled to 588 KW auxillary power unit
A hybrid Nammo rocket likely in a cluster of four or five
motors rated at 122 kN (27,427 lbf) will comprise the rocket stage. Present
calculations shows the combined rocket and jet engine thrust will take just 55
seconds to reach the 1000 mph speed.
The Rolls-Royce Spey engines used in Thrust SSC were
mechanically controlled via linkages, where as the EJ200 is digital. The engine
has a computer connected to it called a DECU, it measures the engine
performance and opens the valves controlling fuel and air depending on the
sensors. Redundancy features in case of a software or mechanical glitch, include
two communication links to the jet engine, a computer controlled fuel shut off
switch and a manually operated fuel shut off valve.
At 1,000mph, Bloodhound's high speed wheels forged from
solid aluminium, each weighing 95 kgs, will be spinning at 10,200 rpm, that's
rotating at 170 times per second, generating a staggering 50,000 radial g at
the rim. A 1kg bag of sugar at the centre of the wheel would weigh 50 tonnes,
the same as a fully loaded artic lorry at the rim.
Whilst the wheels have been forged using a 3,600 tonne hot press and a 20,000
cold press to ensure the metals internal grain structure radiates out like the
spokes of a wheel, they could still fail if they hit stone hidden beneath the
desert surface.
If a piece of the wheel were to fly off, or indeed a stone lying just under the surface
of the desert were to flick up, they could penetrate the incredibly strong
carbon composite cockpit.
To combat this, Morgan Advanced Materials have developed a
lightweight composite ballistic panel, containing millions of woven glass
fibres to soak up the energy of projectiles that hit them.
The panels have been fitted to both sides of the carbon
fibre cockpit to protect the driver.
To slowdown the car, successive braking system consisting of a
Air Brake deployed at 800 mph, Parachutes deployed at 600 mph and Friction
Brake deployed at 200 mph is used.
The final desert track of length 12 miles (19 kmph) will be
announced later.
