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Astonishing performance
“We have built up to this over the past few weeks, but the
performance today was still astonishing. BLOODHOUND
SSC is already performing like a thoroughbred racing car,
supported by a brilliant engineering team. Nevertheless,
with this combination of runway length and what I have to
do slow the Car down, these two runs represent one of the
most difficult run profiles I will ever do in BLOODHOUND.
“When we run on the dry lake bed at Hakskeen Pan, South
Africa, BLOODHOUND SSC will be running on solid
aluminium wheels with even less grip than we had here.
Data from today’s tests, including jet engine performance,
aerodynamic stability and the braking distances, will help
us plan our World Land Speed Record campaign.”
BLOODHOUND’S Chief Engineer Mark Chapman said,
“The Newquay tests have gone better than anyone
dared hope and that is testament to the many years of
research and design invested in BLOODHOUND SSC. It
is a one-off prototype with over 3,500 bespoke parts, so
to see it performing so well today is a hugely satisfying
experience. It’s like a greyhound, not a bloodhound!”
Next stages of development
Next year, BLOODHOUND SSC will be run at even
higher speeds. “This is as fast as we can run the
Car in the UK,” confirmed Chapman. “We will run it
faster next year. The rocket won’t be in the Car then,
but those runs will be to develop the Car further in
conjunction with developing the rocket programme.”
Endre Lunde, Senior Vice President Communications
at Nammo, BLOODHOUND’s rocket provider, said:
“Today is a tremendous achievement and we are
really looking forward to working with BLOODHOUND
next year to help the Car go even faster.”
A.S. Ramchander, Vice-President Marketing
at Castrol, said: “We are delighted to see
BLOODHOUND SSC complete its first public runs.
This partnership gives us the chance to showcase
how our high-performance products such as
Castrol EDGE SUPERCAR push the boundaries of
performance and we have our sights firmly set on
partnering on a 22nd World Land Speed Record.”
An inspiring day
Although today’s event focused on the Car, the
BLOODHOUND Project is all about inspiring young
people to enjoy, explore and get involved in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics.
Rolls-Royce engineer Jess Herbert said, “I was inspired
to take up a career in engineering by the BLOODHOUND
Project after the team visited my school and I then
took up an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce. I was lucky
enough to have been at the unveiling of BLOODHOUND
back in 2015 and I’m hugely excited and proud to
have the opportunity to witness the test runs. Being a
BLOODHOUND Ambassador has given me the chance
to share the story with the engineers of tomorrow and I
hope that seeing the Car in action will really help to bring
the whole thing to life for them too.”
Richard Noble, Project Director, added, “These trials
at Newquay take us one step closer to setting the next
World Land Speed Record. The BLOODHOUND Project
is now being followed by a huge number of people in
Britain and we are thrilled that 3,500 people came today
and around the same amount are paying to come to see
us on Saturday.
“With Oracle Corporation now on board as our Cloud
Partner we can inspire millions by exporting large volumes
of BLOODHOUND performance data around the world to
220 countries. We have delivered real results already, with
our university partners reporting substantial increases in
the number of young people taking up engineering as a
direct result of the BLOODHOUND Project. That is our
primary objective and we’re delighted that we have 3,500
students coming to see the Car run on Monday 30th
October – I know this will inspire a lot more!”
The Team will now start to analyse the data, as well as
checking the Car and preparing it for the Public Day on
Saturday and the Education Day on Monday when around
3,500 children and young people are expected to attend.
New-Tech Magazine Europe l 67