Every month, driver Andy Green writes his diary page bringing the project up to date from his perspective, and looking forward to what is planned next on the way to breaking the World Land Speed Record
The upper rear chassis is now being drilled off for riveting, with 12,000 rivets in total. Most of the frames in the upper chassis are aluminium, but Frame 1 (at the very back) is being manufactured by URT from high-temperature carbon composites.
Global interest in Project BLOODHOUND continues to grow. I’ve spent a fair bit of the last month overseas, promoting the world’s first 1000 mph Car, together with BLOODHOUND’s science and technology education programme.
Great news from South Africa. The amazing network of high speed phone masts, built just for BLOODHOUND, is now complete. This is a huge commitment from MTN, the mobile phone company providing the network for us.
It was exactly 30 years ago that Thrust 2 broke the World Land Speed Record – 633 mph – and brought the record back to Britain. Until then, it seemed that the US had taken the record away from us for good, with all their new-fangled jet and rocket technology. Fortunately for Britain, a certain Richard Noble decided that we should get it back. When he set the record in 1983, he reminded us (and the rest of the world) that Britain was still a world-beater.
Now, 30 years later, we’re building something that would go past Thrust 2 like it’s standing still. BLOODHOUND SSC, the world’s first 1000 mph Car. We have the best motorsports industry in the world (if you need proof, just have a look at where all the Formula 1 teams are based) and one of the best aerospace industries (see the RAF’s world-class new Typhoon aircraft for further details). BLOODHOUND is going to be product of both industries, with a bit of space technology thrown in. It’s another world champion in the making. Read more
We’ve decided to start a ‘Top Gear’ style leader board for the VIPs that have set a time on our BLOODHOUND Driving Experience. The current list includes Baroness Scotland at 997 mph, David Willetts (Minister for Universities and Science) at 1003.3 mph and William Hague (Foreign Secretary) who was – until recently – just in the lead with a speed of 1003.6 mph.
This month’s test driver was the Chancellor, George Osborne. After a quick brief, he jumped into the Driving Experience and set our new fastest time – 1007 mph.
I’m still smiling after the amazing weekend we had recently at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. BLOODHOUND’s huge marquee was packed out with Festival-goers talking to the team about the BLOODHOUND Show Car, its EJ200 jet engine, the massive aluminum diffuser floor (which had literally come straight from the factory) and the huge range of other bits we had on display. Press interest was also intense, with 2 TV crews fighting each other for space at one stage. I dread to think what it’s going to be like when we’re running the Car….
Outside, the kids were busy making and racing BLOODHOUND rocket cars (which is both difficult and impressive!), next to my personal favourite, the display of previous World Land Speed Record cars.
This month there’s some good news and bad news, depending on how you look at it. After a project review by leading management consultants BMT Hi-Q Sigma, our build plan will now deliver BLOODHOUND SSC ready to run in 2015.
Last week I was in Singapore, for a forum on Innovation, Technology and Design. The British Council and the British High Commission had invited an A-list group of UK companies to showcase the best of British expertise. It was an impressive list, including McLaren, Rolls-Royce, Arup, Dyson – and BLOODHOUND.
Great news this month – we’ve just announced a fantastic new sponsor. For the first time in the company’s history, Rolls-Royce is sponsoring a World Land Speed Record project. Its engines have been used since the early days of record breaking, and they created what was probably the most successful record power-plant ever: the 37-litre, V-12 ‘Type R’, which became the only engine in history to set Air, Water and Land Speed Records in the 1930s.
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Project Bloodhound is about more than just building the world’s first 1000 mph Car (impressive though that will be). Our long-term legacy is the Bloodhound Education Programme, which continues to go from strength to strength. Our latest schools competition is the chance to design the colour scheme for my helmet. I’ve got 2 helmets so we’re going to pick 2 winners, one from the UK and one from South Africa. The winners will get a schools visit from Bloodhound, plus a chance to come and see the Car run for themselves. The competition closes on 10 May, so there’s still time to enter. if you’re quick.
Some breaking news this month. We’ve been working on timings for the final build of Bloodhound SSC for a couple of months now, to see if it is practical to get out there by the end of this year. With some 200 technical partners, product sponsors and suppliers to include in the planning, it’s a wide-ranging conversation! We have also had to take into account the weather in the Northern Cape in South Africa, where we are going to run. The rainy season stretches from about November through to April, so the weather could stop us running during that period.
So here’s the new plan that we’re now going to deliver – we will be test-running the EJ200 jet engine in the Car in October of this year (our fifth Birthday: how time flies when you’re building a 1000 mph Car), followed by runway testing at the start of 2014 and then off to South Africa around Easter next year.
As a Royal Air Force Fighter Pilot, I like to think that I’ve got a reasonable understanding of aircraft and how they work. However, the more time I spend on Bloodhound, the more I learn about just how amazing airplanes, and fast jets in particular, really are. Bloodhound SSC is aiming to do over 1000 mph, which is faster than any aircraft – even the Royal Air Force’s latest Typhoon fighter – can travel at ground level. If we’re going to go that fast, then we’ve got to do this better than any aeroplane, and that’s a huge task.
