Something to see, at last! I was visiting the University of the West of England (UWE) to discuss the forthcoming BloodhoundSSC@University pages of the website, when I had an opportunity to see how the build of the mock-up was going. I couldn’t wait!

Image above: The shape of BLOODHOUNDSSC starts to emerge. Behind is the real EJ200 jet engine, packed away in its case.

The facilities in the Department of Design and Engineering at UWE are quite fantastic; I was guided round by Dr John Lanham, who is part of the BloodhoundSSC Education Team. John led me past a full sized BloodhoundSSC cockpit built by his students from MDF, then into where the mock-up was taking shape.

Image left: Mock up Builder Chris Dee behind the first “ribs” in place. Part of the blue foam engine stands alongside.

The purpose of the full size mock-up is give the team a feel for the actual size of the car, and just how much room there is going to be inside to work around the engines and systems before the car is built for real. Up to now, it’s only inside the computer and on drawings. The mock-up consists of a number of MDF “ribs” supplied by Visioneering Ltd, that show where the outer and inner skins of the car will be. The “ribs” are bolted to a steel beam. Dummy engines, made out of pale-blue foam and MDF to the exact size and shape of the real thing, will be installed.

Chris Dee, the workshop manager, proudly showed me all the bits of this jigsaw he will be constructing over the next couple of weeks. “We haven’t really started yet” he says. “The beam needs to be levelled properly and bolted to the floor first, then you’ll soon see BloodhoundSSC taking shape”.

John Piper, BloodhoundSSC Engineering Director added “The mock up is very much 'work in progress' and will grow and evolve over the design period to be a physical representation of the CAD design work the engineering team is doing. It will be invaluable in developing the car 'package' and for use in planning the servicing strategy”.

UWE will be installing webcams very soon to show progress on the mock-up build, and we will be adding them to our website when they are available.

Watch the video clips of the Mock up:

By Nick Chapman, BLOODHOUNDSSC Web Manager, Thursday 29th January 2009.