Speaker at the 2nd April meeting was club member Eric Dewhirst, who gave an update on BLOODHOUND SSC - the UK project aiming to take the World Land Speed record to over 1,000 mph.
This 44 foot long and 8 tonne vehicle has been tested at 200 mph on Newquay airfield and in the Autumn of 2018 is scheduled for a 500 mph ‘warm-up’ at the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa.
The car has three engines - a turbofan jet from a Typhoon Eurofighter, a hybrid rocket to add boost - and an 800 horsepower V8 Cosworth racing engine, just to power the fuel pumps!
The Hakskeen Pan was chosen as it is level and flat, with a smooth surface of sun-hardened mud. Some 12 miles long, 6,000 tonnes of rocks and stones have been cleared by hand by a team of 300 people over a four-month period.
To break the land speed record (763.343 mph set in 1997 by Andy Green) Bloodhound aims to exceed 1,000 mph over a measured mile - and this has to be done in both directions. The plan is to cross the start of the mile at 1050 mph - faster than a speeding bullet! More than 132,000 horsepower will be absorbed to achieve this.
The accelerations, forces and stresses on car and driver will be huge, with a pressure suit needed to avoid loss of consciousness.
Perhaps the most critical components on the car are the wheels - each weighing 95 kg and spinning at 10,200 rpm at full speed. Tyres would simply fly to pieces, so wheels are of solid aerospace-grade aluminium / zinc alloy. The wheels have been forged in Germany and machined to the finest of tolerances by Castle Precision Engineering in Glasgow.
The record run will take 3.4 seconds to cover the mile and will use up some 2 tonnes of fuel in each direction - 56 gallons to the mile!
An heroic and hazardous, privately-funded venture, at the extreme edge of mechanical engineering. In concluding, Eric emphasised that there is also another very important aim to the project - and that is to capture imaginations and inspire young people into careers in science and engineering. Several thousand schools, FE colleges and universities are involved - and all design information, drawings and calculations are freely available to students.
In Eric’s view, a vital need for the future of our country in this technological age.
Following questions a vote of thanks was proposed by Ian Kennedy.
