Apart from a brief break in the 1960s and 1970s, British engineering and drivers have played a dominant role in setting the land speed record in the fastest cars on the planet. Starting from Lydston Hornsted’s Benz No. 3, which broke the record to reach 124mph exactly 100 years ago, to the current land-speed-record holder Andy Green’s Thrust SSC, which crossed the supersonic barrier to reach 763mph in 1997.
Now the people behind Thrust SSC have set themselves an even more challenging target to reach the land speed record of 1,000 mph in a new car called Bloodhound SSC. The target date for achieving it is 2016 and it will be attempted in the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa, where they have created a track that is 12 miles long and two miles wide.
The hope in doing this is to inspire a new generation of British engineers and scientists, promote British engineering around the world and spin out technologies that will affect the design of engineering applications and bolster the UK economy.
Now the people behind Thrust SSC have set themselves an even more challenging target to reach the land speed record of 1,000 mph in a new car called Bloodhound SSC. The target date for achieving it is 2016 and it will be attempted in the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa, where they have created a track that is 12 miles long and two miles wide.
The hope in doing this is to inspire a new generation of British engineers and scientists, promote British engineering around the world and spin out technologies that will affect the design of engineering applications and bolster the UK economy.
How to stay on the ground
It is now seven years since I first sat down with Ron Ayers and Richard Noble, who led Thrust SSC. In that meeting, we discussed the idea and, specifically, aerodynamic challenges of taking a land-based vehicle to 1,000 mph. It was soon after that bizarre encounter that the picture below turned up on my desk at Swansea University (where I was completing a PhD at the time).
Early artist’s impression of the yet-to-be-named’ Bloodhound LSR vehicle
It is now seven years since I first sat down with Ron Ayers and Richard Noble, who led Thrust SSC. In that meeting, we discussed the idea and, specifically, aerodynamic challenges of taking a land-based vehicle to 1,000 mph. It was soon after that bizarre encounter that the picture below turned up on my desk at Swansea University (where I was completing a PhD at the time).
Early artist’s impression of the yet-to-be-named’ Bloodhound LSR vehicle
A key question when starting to design Bloodhound was: how can we keep the car on the ground? This is important because cars at such speeds are at the risk of taking off, much like how airplanes do. For comparison, a typical passenger plane takes off at about 150mph. Of course the thrust offered to planes is meant for it to take off, but for cars going at 1,000mph, any mistake in the aerodynamics would mean disaster. Although this hasn’t happened in recent attempts of speed records, an example from 1967 when Donald Campbell tried to reach a water speed record illustrates what could go wrong.
Technology developments and the bravery of drivers have kept creating new land speed records all through the last century. Even though the first record was set in an electric powered car, most of the first half of the century worth of records were then dominated by piston engine driven vehicles. These internal combustion engines, as they are known, are found in almost all modern petrol or diesel cars. Using these engines the record could be reached only up to 400 mph.
To push beyond, car builders needed more power. That is when they turned to jet engines and rockets to take over the job of propelling these vehicle. This was also the time when, as speeds kept going up, the resistance caused by air became too important to ignore. Aerodynamics of cars became critical in a successful land speed record attempt.
Technology developments and the bravery of drivers have kept creating new land speed records all through the last century. Even though the first record was set in an electric powered car, most of the first half of the century worth of records were then dominated by piston engine driven vehicles. These internal combustion engines, as they are known, are found in almost all modern petrol or diesel cars. Using these engines the record could be reached only up to 400 mph.
To push beyond, car builders needed more power. That is when they turned to jet engines and rockets to take over the job of propelling these vehicle. This was also the time when, as speeds kept going up, the resistance caused by air became too important to ignore. Aerodynamics of cars became critical in a successful land speed record attempt.
