The UK-based Bloodhound project has taken another step forward in its bid to hit the 1000mph mark.
Bloodhound sits beside the Cosworth F1 engine Image: Bloodhound SSC Project |
Bloodhound SSC, successor to the Thrust SSC project which set the current world land speed record of 763mph (1228kph has been designed to reach 1000mph (1609kph).
The supersonic car will be powered by a Formula One racing car engine and a rocket capable of producing some 14,000lbs of thrust, or the equivalent of around 40,000hp.
The whole propulsion system has been combined with a special gearbox and linked with bespoke fuel tanks and computer software to create a hybrid system for the Bloodhound project.
The system was successfully tested for the first time at a specialist aeronautical centre in Cornwall, UK. Delighted with test - which itself claimed a record as the largest rocket firing in the UK for more than 20 years - engineers from the project will now assess the data to fine-tune the system.
The F1 engine is used as a firing mechanism, revving to 16,600rpm to fire the liquid fuel of High Test Peroxide (HTP) into the rocket. Additional solid fuel, made from synthetic rubber, also feeds the hungry engine.
The team - under the guidance of former Thrust project director, Richard Noble, and with landspeed record holding pilot, Andy Green, once again at the controls - intends to begin it's 1000mph attempt some time in the late summer of 2013 at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa.