There are a few defining moments in the evolution of the automobile but none quite so spectacular as when the British Royal Air Force pilot, Wing Commander Andy Green, became the first person to break the sound barrier on land in the twin-jet propelled car Thrust SSC.
What’s even more staggering is that the record was set on October 15, 1997 – 50 years and one day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying the experimental Bell X-1 – and it hasn’t been broken since. That’s 16 years and, despite rumours of attempts by US and Australian teams, Thrust SSC’s record remains intact. In a fast-paced world of ever more condensed computing power, material technology and advanced aerodynamic studies, humans have still not gone faster – on land at least.
As technical achievements go, it was up there with Concorde, man landing on the moon and the mass production of the microchip. It capped off a run of land and water speed records set by British speed fanatics that started with Malcolm Campbell in the 1920s, his son Donald during the 1950s and 1960s and culminated in the Thrust 2 (1983) and Thrust SSC projects headed by entrepreneur Richard Noble.
Noble and Green are a formidable team, and they’re now behind a project to smash their own record. And while land-speed records generate a huge amount of interest, they’ve taken a different approach to the project this time. Bloodhound SSCs (supersonic cars) target is the 1,000mph (1,609kph mark) – but the impetus behind the project isn’t simply to achieve another certificate to hang on the wall. It’s to get young school children interested in science and technology again.
Why? The UK is in desperate need of engineers, technicians and scientists. At the moment there are more university students learning psychology than engineering, and Green says the UK is simply not producing enough professionals in the technical sciences to cope with future demand. It was a problem highlighted by Paul Drayson, the UK minister for state defence equipment and support, during a meeting with Noble and Green seven years ago.
“He related this [ speed record project] to the great British aerospace achievements of the past: Concorde, the Vulcan, the Lightning. He said that, in those times, there was seldom a shortage of engineers. Once the government had turned off the inspiration tap, school leavers started to look elsewhere for their careers,” says Green.
“Kids in those days didn’t have a problem getting excited about science and technology because there were inspiring things like the Apollo program, man walking on the moon, Concorde – absolutely fascinating things. Where are the engineering icons of today? Where are the projects that will grow the engineer of tomorrow? Richard and I thought, that’s exactly the sort of thing that the land speed record can do.”
To inspire the young to look at the sciences again, Noble and Green are building a pencil-shaped car that will be powered by a Eurofighter (Typhoon) EJ200 jet engine made by Rolls-Royce, a Nammo HTP hybrid rocket and an 800hp, 2.4-litre Cosworth V-8 F1 engine that will generate a combined output of 130,000 thrust horsepower – or roughly the same amount as 180 Formula 1 cars. They plan a series of build-up runs, beginning this year, ahead of the record attempt at the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa in 2015. The location is 20km long, 3.2km wide and has been cleared by hand over the past three years.
The project is central to an enormous national and global education program designed to get children of all ages interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To do that, curriculum resources for the project are available for download on the Bloodhound SSC website for teachers, schools and home-educated families. Live streaming data and video from the car during the build-up and the record attempt will be available to supplement lessons.
“It’s an extremely simple concept and yet fascinatingly complex in its execution,” says Green. “Take the location, for example. Where in the world is there a 20-plus kilometer-long stretch that you can actually run on? What sort of natural local conditions form a surface like that? What’s the availability like? Does it need to flood in winter? Well, yes, it does, to make sure the surface is flat. What’s the weather window? What’s the rainy season like? Why is the rainy season in North America of a different nature to the one in South Africa? Why do they happen at the same time? One is in the summer [South Africa] and one is in the winter. So now you’re into the environmental sciences as to what forms these surfaces and what influences them.”
During the record attempt, Green will operate Bloodhound SSC from a feet first position and experience acceleration G-forces up to 2.5. The Typhoon jet engine gets the car to almost 500kph before the rocket fires up and provides the thrust needed to break the 1,609kph mark. The car is designed to hit a top speed of 1,690kph, just to make sure that it averages over 1,609 during its two runs.
At top speed, Bloodhound will run the measured kilometre in 2.2 seconds. At such speed it could, in theory, get from Abu Dhabi to Dubai in just 10 minutes. Two minutes after launch it will be 12km away.
Deceleration will be violent. When Green closes the throttles off, the car will go from 2.5G of acceleration to 3G of deceleration, which will throw his body against his harness straps and make his blood rush to his feet, risking blackout. To combat that, he’s currently using a light aerobatic Xtra 300 aircraft to keep up his G- tolerance.
“The jet engine is going to have to cope with air coming in to it at 1,600kph. That is faster than the Typhoon will go at low level. That is faster than any jet fighter has ever been at low level. So, at ground level, we are exceeding the world low altitude airspeed record.
“For the first time in over 100 years, we’re building a car that’s faster than any aeroplane in existence, which means we’re taking the engine outside its design envelope. So the loads on the front of the engine are considerable,” he says.
At around 1,300kph, he’ll be able to use the airbrakes to slow the car; parachutes will be deployed once the car slows to 965kph, and friction brakes can be used at around 320kph.
“There’s a lot going on. 3G is also outside the design envelope of the jet engine because Typhoon doesn’t slow down that fast, so the engine isn’t stressed to slow down at 3g. All of the components move forward on the bearings: is that going to damage the engine? Rolls-Royce has done a lot of study, and they say it won’t. The only real concern was whether the oil in the rear bearing housing migrates forward through the engine, because if it gets into one of the closed spaces ahead of that, heats up and catches fire, it will destroy the engine and blow the back of the car off,” he says.
Rolls-Royce engineers say that won’t happen because there’s so much air rushing through the front end that the oil will stay where it should. It’s a formidable technical and educational challenge for the team.
“You’ll be able to sit here with your iPad and watch me, down in South Africa, driving live every time we do it. You will get to see it live from cameras over the cockpit, the tailfin, or looking at the jet engine. If you’re at school, you’ll be able to actually download the data and look at the aerodynamics or the wheel bearing temperatures, or how the surfaces coped – or whatever just happens to be the lesson for the day,” Green explains.
He adds: “Does anyone need a supersonic car? Will anyone be going to the shops in five years’ time at 1,000mph? Of course not. Does anyone need jet-powered cars? Completely stupid, inefficient, and there are better ways to do it. But do we need scientists and engineers to solve the real problems of efficiency and transport, communications, clean food and clean water, civil engineering to sustain the growth in Dubai. Where are the people, right now, that are going to be doing that in the future? They’re still 12 and they’re still at school. If they’re not into science and technology, the future I’ve described is not going to happen.”
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