Bloodhound LSR

Must feel dodgy driving those speeds on sand, i know for me at least doing the same ( drive fast ) on a dirt road in a car, to me it sort of feel like you are floating.
And my as are almost my most sensitive driving equipment, so it start to send alarm signals along the line of " hey brain,,,, i think you are on the limit now"
The reason most cars feel dodgy at high speed is that they have negative downforce, most normal cars would lift the front wheels off the ground if they went above 200mph, you would actually be floating, an F1 car is the opposite, they can quite often go around a corner easier if they increase the speed, these days they only slide off the road on the slow corners where they can't generate enough downforce!

Bloodhound seems to have difficulty with wind gusts between 300 and 400 mph, above that it has enough downforce to steer OK on the sand.

Apparently in the last run, the air under the car was supersonic, which brings more problems, like a large amount of paint being removed.
I think they are heading home now to fit the new rocket engine in addition to the jet to get enough power to actually push them through the sound barrier and beyond.
 
High sub-sonic and trans-sonic speeds are still tricky, even with today's knowledge and CAD technology. Even a tiny change can produce extreme effects in that speed range. Hard to imaging how a few ounces of air pressure can move the mass involved here so much. I've gone over 150MPH in cars and on bikes, but nowadays at my age even 80MPH on the ground begins to spook me :eek:

Phil
 
It are probably a lot more fun to sandblast something, than the way i am skilled to do with a nozzle in the hand and dressed up like one was about to head into space.

And BTW getting blasted with steel grit from a few M away,,,,,,, you feel when you are working next to a inconsiderate idiot.
 
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High sub-sonic and trans-sonic speeds are still tricky, even with today's knowledge and CAD technology.

When things go wrong at 500+ MPH, they tend to go badly wrong, since August the USA's attempt to beat the British record isn't looking too good, and the driver, known to most of us from Mythbusters, looked worse:

NINTCHDBPICT000518859844.jpg


 
I remember Jessi from Overhaulin, but its right she was on mythbusters too while Kari was on leave.
Overhaulin was some of my all time favorite TV, as i enjoy to watch craft people lay their thing down,,,,, and of course cars.
 
0 = 1010 Km/h in 50 seconds, getting clever with sunburst filters and lens reflections this time, and the magenta flash on the rear view is back:


They have put the road wheels back on to take it home, and get that rocket gauge working for the 1000 mph next year. Wonder if the magenta flash will be fixed over the winter? There is a bit of vibration on the ****pit cam to fix too...
 
Use a zero instead of a letter to spell "c0ckpit" to avoid the automatic profanity filter ;) I don't know how their team works, but unless they've got a camera/electronics only tech, I'd think all their resources are going into increasing performance instead of better video. Crazy fast speeds- I wish them the best (y)

Phil
 
Wonder what the various government agencies feel about the fuel efficiency. :LOL:
Problem solved, they are going zero carbon by replacing the V8 petrol rocket fuel pump by a 550 bhp electric fuel pump and the rocket itself is non-combustion, zero carbon (only producing steam and oxygen) :

Bloodhound to Break Records with Zero Emissions Rocket

Green steam rocket

The biggest change to the car’s configuration for the land speed record runs will be the addition of a rocket to provide extra thrust. This will be provided by Norwegian rocket specialist Nammo. As part of a research programme for the European Space Agency, Nammo has designed a compact, zero-emissions rocket to be used as a launch motor to put small satellites (known as cubesats) into space. The size and power of this rocket makes it ideal for use in Bloodhound LSR.

The Nammo rocket is a ‘monopropellant’ design that uses concentrated hydrogen peroxide (water with an extra oxygen molecule – H2O2) as the oxidiser. This is pumped at high pressure through silver gauze, which acts as a catalyst, causing it to decompose (split apart) into super-heated steam (600°C) and oxygen. The steam and oxygen are channelled through a nozzle to generate thrust. There is no fuel ‘combustion’ and therefore no flame nor any chemically harmful waste generated by the rocket from each run. Bloodhound LSR will be steam powered!

Work is also underway to optimise the auxiliary power unit needed to pump the rocket’s oxidiser. Rather than the originally specified 550bhp V8 internal combustion engine, this will be an electric motor and battery pack of comparable power, using technology only available very recently.

The Bloodhound team is also exploring the possibility of running the Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine on bio-fuel instead of Jet A fuel, further reducing the environmental impact of operating the car.
 
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