An English racing team called the\u00a0Bloodhound Project\u00a0is a step closer to breaking the land-speed record\u2014not just by 150 or even 300 kilometers (100 or 200 miles) per hour. The English team\u2014the favorite to succeed in a field of at least five competitors\u2014successfully tested a rocket in early October that is expected to help push its car to 1,600 kph (1,000 mph), nearly 500 kph (300 mph) faster than the previous mark.<\/p>\n
The rocket is a hybrid. It burns when a liquid oxidizer\u2014in this case highly concentrated peroxide\u2014contacts a solid fuel, here a synthetic rubber called hydroxyl-terminated\u00a0polybutadiene, in a chamber. During the October test\u2014its first\u2014the engine performed as expected, igniting for 10 seconds and creating 6,350 kilograms (14,000 pounds) of thrust, equivalent to about 35,000 horsepower.<\/p>\n
The Bloodhound\u2019s four-meter- by 45.7-centimeter-diameter hybrid rocket will be joined with a Cosworth Formula 1 engine that pumps liquid oxidizer into the rocket and a EuroJet EJ200 military jet engine on loan from the U.K. They plan to push the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car to Mach 1.4 in South Africa a year from now.<\/p>\n
Even as Bloodhound scientists and engineers pored over data from the test burn, competitors around the world continued their efforts to break the\u00a015-year-old recordof 1,228 kph (763.035 mph), or Mach 1.02.\u00a0Andy Green, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and, not coincidentally, Bloodhound\u2019s designated driver, holds that record.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were sealed in a control bunker about 200 yards [180 meters] away\u201d from a second sealed bunker with the rocket at a Cornwall, England, airport, Green says. \u201cI could feel it through the ground. You could smell the fuel. It was the smell of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to breaking the land-speed record, a 1,600 kph (1,000-mph) run would be faster than any jet fighter at low altitude in history, Green says. The fastest pass\u2014at more than 15 meters off the ground\u2014was about 1,590 kph (988.3 mph), in a modified Lockheed F-104 in 1977, he adds, \u201cand that was without dragging its wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out on South Africa\u2019s Hakskeen Pan, the rocket will have to produce a peak thrust of 27,500 pounds over 20 seconds. The EJ200 jet engine will chip in another 20,000 pounds of thrust. Together they will create a total of 135,000 horsepower.<\/p>\n
Why is Green pairing a jet engine with a rocket? Money is the chief constraint for this sport, even when you have the English military lending you a free-of-charge jet engine. \u201cGoing with just a rocket would double our budget,\u201d Green says.<\/p>\n
Adding a conventional jet engine enables the Bloodhound team to begin testing the vehicle next summer up to 1,125 kph (700 mph) without sparking the rocket. In fact, 90 percent of the testing on the chassis, suspension, body and brakes does not require the rocket, according to Green.<\/p>\n
Operationally, the Bloodhound rocket \u201cis fully throttleable,\u201d Green says. That is, it fires up when the oxidizer pump comes on and quits when the flow halts, making it more reliable and controllable than designs in which you light a fuse and hope for the best.<\/p>\n
Bloodhound may be behind in development compared with some rivals, but government support, Green\u2019s presence and that of\u00a0former land-speed record-holder Richard Noble\u00a0as project director make them the team to beat.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the desert east of Los Angeles, Waldo Stakes, chief executive of California-based Bloodhound competitor\u00a0Land Speed Research Vehicles, is designing the Sonic Wind, a car he says will crack 3,200 kph (2,000 mph). His economy-class effort involves systems every bit as exotic as those being used in the Bloodhound Project. His propulsion will come from a junked XLR-99 rocket engine built in the 1960s to power the now-defunct X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane. The engine once generated 500,000 horsepower. The sport of land-speed racing is at the point \u201cwhere we need a lot of power to push a car through this dense syrup of air,\u201d Stakes says.<\/p>\n
Stakes is not the only competitor of the four-year-old Bloodhound Project. There are two in Australia, one in New Zealand and a privately funded Canadian-American team in Washington State focused on \u201cmerely\u201d topping 1,290 kph (800 mph). Ed Shadale, principal owner and driver of\u00a0North American Eagle, says he is not intimidated by Bloodhound, which does not yet have a chassis. (Assembly of Bloodhound\u2019s chassis should begin by yearend.)<\/p>\n
The Eagle\u2019s chassis is a rehabbed F-104 jet fuselage that has completed 31 test runs. Shadale\u2019s vehicle, like all the contenders, looks like a colorful missile on its side, with one exception. Rather than being streamlined to the point of anorexia, the Eagle is pitched steeply on its nose and stabilized by a wide, outrigger-style rear axle.<\/p>\n
The Eagle\u2019s top speed will be 1,340 kph (835 mph), and it has gone about 965 kph (600 mph). \u201cTechnically, we\u2019re in great shape,\u201d Shadale says, adding, \u201cFinancially\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither the Bloodhound nor Eagle will race on the western U.S.\u2019s storied salt flats, and for the same reason: Where the pans have not been damaged by recreational use, they are thinning to a less than eight-centimeter veneer in places. Imperfections rob horsepower and are dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve found 11 really beautiful miles\u201d [17.7 kilometers] of alkali lake bed in southeast Oregon\u2019s Alvord Desert. \u201cWe need 14 or 15 miles [about 24 kilometers], really,\u201d Shadale says, which means focusing on immediate horsepower.<\/p>\n
Stakes is sticking with the U.S., home of many speed records. He says he will overcome the horsepower-robbing imperfections of native flats by throwing more power at the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s how I see it: The North American Eagle will break the record, then the U.K., then I come in and bat cleanup,\u201d Stakes says.<\/p>\n
He might be the only one in the world who sees this race in such straightforward terms.<\/p>\n
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