Going
supersonic
The latest Bloodhound SSC is designed to reach
1,610kph and stay intact WORDS BY FERMAN LAO
very car enthusiast knows
the first production
automobile was invented
in 1886 by Karl Benz. But
mention December 18 ,
1898 , and you’ll mostly get
blank stares. FYI: On that day, the first official
land speed record (LSR) was achieved by
French driver Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat,
who drove the electric Jeantaud Duc to a little
over 63 kph over a measured kilometer.
Soon, attempts to beat the record kicked off.
The first few were set by electric vehicles, but
these were surpassed by the steam-powered
Easter Egg, which was quickly deposed by
a Mors vehicle propelled by an internal-
combustion engine. Internal-combustion
engines became the prime mover of choice
until August 5 , 1963 , when Craig Breedlove
breached the 650 kph mark with the jet-
powered Spirit of America.
This marked the shift to predominantly jet-
or rocket-propelled LSR holders. Of all these,
the Thrust SSC (Supersonic Car) was the first
and only one to break the sound barrier so far,
with British driver and RAF pilot Andy Green
clocking in 1,227.986kph in 1997.
Next year, Green will again be in the driver
seat, this time of the Bloodhound SSC. The
goal: Breach the 1,610kph (1,000mph) mark.
To achieve this, the Bloodhound SSC employs
technologies from the automotive, aviation and
aerospace industries, making it part-race car,
part-fighter jet and part-space rocket.
The front part of the car, for example,
is constructed with the same carbon-fiber
material and technology in Formula 1 cars.
Unlike F 1 single-seater tubs, however, the
Bloodhound has a more spacious cockpit, an
instrumentation panel, and controls that look
straight out of a fighter jet.
Behind the driver is the fuel tank for the
oxidizer of the hybrid rocket engines. The
fuel, high-test peroxide or HTP, is delivered
to a catalyzer and combines with the solid
propellant in the rocket via an impeller-type
fuel pump spinning at 10,000rpm. The pump
is driven by a beefed-up supercharged V8
powering the Jaguar F-Type R.
The Nammo hybrid rocket (meaning
E
it uses both a two-component fuel—the
aforementioned liquid HTP and a solid
synthetic rubber propellant) was chosen
because it can be shut off by Green at any sign of
trouble. A solid-propellant rocket, on the other
hand, would be nigh impossible to shut off until
the fuel runs out. And unlike liquid-fuel rockets,
the hybrid rocket does not carry the risk of
explosion should the liquid HTP and the solid
propellant come in direct contact without the
HTP passing through the catalyzer first.
From 0-560kph, the prime mover is the
EJ 200 jet engine repurposed from a Eurofighter
combat aircraft. Installed in a Eurofighter, it
is rated at Mach 1.2 at sea level—a bit short of
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