Good news for the 1,000mph car as Bloodhound gets a new owner
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Glad to see this. It's an enormous engineering challenge and STEM outreach/education is a large part of the project.
I went to see Thrust SSC, its predecessor, being built when I was a kid. Hugely exciting and if this inspires people to take up any number of disciplines required to make something like this work it's a good thing.
I went to see Thrust SSC, its predecessor, being built when I was a kid. Hugely exciting and if this inspires people to take up any number of disciplines required to make something like this work it's a good thing.
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They haven't actually moved very far. As the crow flies, the new site is about 15 miles from the old. A minute's drive at 1,000 mph.
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It might have been nice to have some info about the new owner. Who is he, what’s his interest, etc.?
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Not liking the new color scheme, but who cares, I am just happy that there is a chance for the car to actually break the record.
I am following this project for years now and was sad to hear that they had finally run out of money. Hope this new sponsor is in for the long haul.
I am following this project for years now and was sad to hear that they had finally run out of money. Hope this new sponsor is in for the long haul.
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It's not a hybrid rocket/jet engine.
Bloodhound has two engines. The first is a military jet engine (out of a Eurofighter Typhoon). The second is a Norwegian hybrid rocket engine, where hybrid means it's neither solid nor liquid fueled, but rather uses a liquid oxidiser (peroxide) with a solid fuel (HTPB - polybutadiene)
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Apparently he owns this company which appropriately enough makes turbo chargers and other auto parts:
https://www.melett.com/about-melett/
https://www.melett.com/industry-article ... d-project/
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The Melett-site mentions the sale of the company to Wabtec, an American turbo manufacturer.
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Wabtec is a major player in the railroad industry. Beginning as the Westinghouse Air Brake Company it merged with Motive Power Industries maybe 2 decades ago and just recently bought GE's locomotive business.
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There's a reason why people make rockets the way they do.
There's even a lot of better reasons why people don't make fighters or space ships the way this thing is made.
You should learn those reasons.
But thanks for the laugh.
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Recently from here I have discovered that in American and English a danish are two different things, and that in the US (but not over here) "butter" can include lard - beef fat. And at one time I thought I spoke reasonably fluent American.
At this rate we're going to need courses to communicate.
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Obvious synergy then - let the Boring Company build the tunnel and do the run between the old and new sites.
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Is the Boring Company active in England? Also, a tunnel under farmland seems silly, especially since there's a rural road nearby.
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He doesn't apparently understand aerodynamics, nor rocketry, nor any of the other very valid, engineering and physical reasons why others are dismissing his notion as absurd.
There is a SSTO project underway. Seems to me both NASA and SpaceX are working on them. Getting to orbit via an air-breathing engine means having dead weight in orbit, and the engine will likely die out long before it gets there, which means carrying the dead weight of a rocket and ITS fuel up as high as you can first.
Best to just use rockets, since that's how every other ORBIT CAPABLE horizontal landing vehicle has gotten there. The Stratolaunch concept with the Pegasus rocket is still suborbital, and that's being done by people who know a hell of a lot more about flight (both air and space) than Xrobins obviously does.
As for air/space fighter hybrids, there's no reason to have them. Because half of their systems rely on different fuels and equipment, it can't be optimized for "fighting" in EITHER venue due to weight considerations.
So, my take is he's either being a troll over it, or doesn't want to learn why everyone is voting him down. Given his pointless nonsense in the part you tried to quote, I'm leaning toward troll.
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Huh? In American English, “butter” is, well, butter - made from milk butterfat.
And lard is pork fat; beef fat is tallow.
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I'm so glad they are back. LSR is way more exciting when there's competition between them and the Aussie Invader.
Johnathan, I'd love to see a piece comparing them along with the North American Eagle
Johnathan, I'd love to see a piece comparing them along with the North American Eagle
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I had a chat recently with the Aussie Invader people, still trying to line up a time to talk to Roscoe but the time difference and everyone’s travel schedules keeps making that difficult. It’ll happen eventually.
I did write about NAE a while ago (https://meincmagazine.com/cars/2016/10/th ... d-project/) but with the death of Ed Shadle it’s obviiusly suffered a massive setback.
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The total amount spent on Bloodbound wouldn’t even cover the coffee budget of developing an affordable electric car.
And it’s Concorde, with an E.
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I've often wondered why LSR vehicles have such relatively complex means of deriving their power. Is there a particular reason why you couldn't just put a big solid rocket motor in the back of a car like this and then swap it out after each run?
Is it the issue of needing dynamic throttling?
Is it the issue of needing dynamic throttling?
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Yes. If something goes wrong, there’s no way to turn off a solid rocket.
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Nora Lenderbee
Ars Tribunus Militum
George Bernard Shaw said: 'England and America are two countries divided by a common language'.
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Doing one does not preclude doing the other. It isn't like the investment in Bloodhound LSR takes money away from creating cheap affordable electric cars.
Also, the money doesn't go down the drain. The science and engineering knowledge gained from projects like this will be sued for other things. The staff will learn skills that will be useful for future employers.
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Bloodhound no more has an "overall" engine than it has a single "overall" wheel ...
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Thrust termination ports have been a thing for a long time on solid motors which would at least mean the vehicle wasn't accelerating anymore once they were activated.
There has also been a fair bit of work done on motors that can be extinguished and then restarted later, but they wouldn't be available 'off the shelf' in the same way as a normal solid motor.
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When I speak to the Aussie Invader people I’ll be sure to ask for you.
For Bloodhound, there’s a lot of institutional knowledge in the UK when it comes to H2O2 and rocketry. But the two previous records went to jet-powered cars from the UK, and most US attempts of late have also been jet-powered simply because it’s easier to get your hands on the right amount of jet-powered thrust than it is rocket-powered.
Often, LSR projects get started because someone has access to a suitable engine and it goes from there.
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Thanks, it would be interesting to know what their thoughts are about the different potential approaches for powering an LSR vehicle. It makes sense though that the engine is the most expensive and complex part, so you probably have to build the car around whatever you can realistically get hold of rather than deciding on a propulsion method and then trying to implement it.
I guess I'd just love to see the result of fixing a Sprint missile motor to the back of a car!
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