New-TechEurope Magazine | November 2017 | Digital Edition

BLOODHOUND successful first public runs

BLOODHOUNDSSCmade its first public runs at Cornwall Airport Newquay today, hitting a peak speed of 210mph in front of an estimated 3,500 spectators, including VIPs and members of the BLOODHOUND’s 1K supporters club. The successful test was live streamed around the world and came 20 years after driver Wing Commander Andy Green set the current World Land Speed Record of 763.035mph. BLOODHOUND SSC made two runs along the 9,000ft (2.7km) runway, accelerating at a rate of 1.5G and reaching 210mph from a standing start in just 8 seconds. The runs were an unqualified success and atmosphere among the crowd was euphoric. Andy Green was equally thrilled: “The Car is already working faster and better than we expected. I cannot wait to go faster!” Powering down the runway For these runs, power was provided by a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, normally found in a Eurofighter Typhoon. This produced a peak thrust of 20,000lbs (90 kilonewtons), equivalent to 54,000 thrust horsepower, or the combined output of 360 family cars. On completing the test, Andy Green added: “The design and engineering team has done an incredible job with BLOODHOUND SSC. There is development work still to do, of course, but straight out of the box it feels responsive, stable and, above all, tremendously fast. “Although 210mph is far below the Car’s ultimate target of 1,000mph, today was a proper workout for the vehicle. The Car is designed for high speed on a desert rather than sprint performance off the line, but it still accelerated from zero to 210mph in less than 8 seconds. It’s also notable for being the longest period that we’ve run the

Car for, at around 21.5 minutes – and remember it’s designed to run for just 2 minutes at a time in the desert.” Final stage of Newquay tests The runway trials came at the end of a month of testing at Cornwall Airport Newquay where the Team has been checking the integration of the EJ200 jet engine as well as the Car’s steering, brakes, suspension, data systems and other functions. It’s also given the Team the opportunity to develop operating procedures and safety protocols, and practice radio communications. The Car was fitted with its runway wheels, originally from an English Electric Lightning fighter. Specially reconditioned by Dunlop, these wheels have pneumatic tyres, which have around one-third of the grip of regular car tyres. “Stopping a slippery, 5 tonne car, running on low-grip aircraft tyres, is a challenge within the relatively limited length of the 2.7km runway here, particularly as the Car continues accelerating after I lift off the throttle. I discovered during the initial dynamic tests that to get the Car to 200mph, I would have to take my foot off the throttle at 130mph as it then carries on accelerating for another 2 seconds. And then to slow down, I need to apply gentle pressure to the brakes for 2 seconds to ‘warm up’ the carbon fibre disk brakes before applying full force on the brakes to stop the Car.” The brakes heated up to nearly 1,000°C and Andy noted that there was even a flicker of flame on one of them: “It’s a proper race car!”

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