Supersonic car will outrace speeding bullets

The land speed record currently stands at a blistering 763 mph. That milestone was achieved by the Thrust SuperSonic Car.

But if chief engineer Mark Chapman of the aerospace company Hampson Industries in the UK has his way, that 1997 speed record will be lost in the dust left behind by an incredible supercar: the Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car), is being built by some of the same members of the team that created the Thrust supersonic car.

The Bloodhound SSC is designed to reach 1,000 mph. For a ground vehicle, that’s like Starfleet’s Warp 10.

If the sleek, bullet-shaped car achieves that amazing speed–the fastest land speed by far–it will be able to outrace bullets fired from Magnum pistols. Move over Superman.

Sniffing out a new land speed record with the Bloodhound won’t be an easy feat. Far from it.

Craig Breedlove of ‘Spirit of America’ fame worked for years to achieve it. So did Art Arfons with his beloved speed demon the ‘Green Monster‘ series of incredible jet cars.

The culmination of three years of aerodynamic blood, sweat and tears, the rear of the car is expected to be completed early in 2011. Test runs of the vehicle are tentatively scheduled for the end of 2011 or early in 2012.

The Fantastic Four

While Mark Chapman works his engineering marvels–using every speed trick he can crank out from his computer–a trio of heroes completes the fearsome foursome.

Wing Commander Andy Green will pilot the land vehicle and do his best to keep it pointed straight and level on the ground as it sears its way across the South Afican landscape. A dried lakebed, Haskeen Pan, located in the northern cape of South Afica has been targeted for the speed attempt. project director Richard Noble and chief aerodynamicist Ron Ayres make up the remainder of the senior team members.

Ground effects and the need for speed

One of the most critical aspects the aerodynamic engineering team must overcome is ground effects. As a car attains speed a cushion of air develops under the vehicle. The air becomes compressed and tends to push the vehicle away from the ground forcing it to go airborne. The greater the speed, the more powerful the ground effect and the more dangerous it becomes.

To overcome ground effects, race cars like those in Gran Prix events, the Indy Speedway, and even NASCAR vehicles, use spoilers to force air on the front and back of the vehicle to push downards against the air underneath pushing upwards. It’s a fluid dynamics problem experienced by vehicles traveling even at relatively modest speeds of 200 mph.

At 1,000 miles an hour the force attempting to thrust the vehicle skyward has never been experienced by any vehicle–or human being.

The team discovered during the early modeling of the vehicle utilizing computer simulations and wind tunnels–that when the initial designs broke the sound barrier the vehicle became unstable and the lift unmanageable. The engineers solved that problem by tweaking the design of the vehicle’s rear end. Now they are confident that the sonic shockwave the Bloodhound SSC will generate can be passed through safely.

The British team praises sponsor Intel for their assistance. The giant computer firm brought massive computing power to bear on the sticky lift problem.

A model of the supersonic car grabbed the spotlight at the 2010 Farnborough International Air Show in England held during late July. The sleek supercar turned thousands of heads and grabbed thousands of imaginations.

While there may be many out there that wish they could have their own 1,000 mph car too, don’t expect it to show up in a dealer showroom anytime soon.

Incredible Bloodhound SSC Video

This computer animation depicts how the Bloodhound SSC will outrace a bullet fired by a .357 Magnum pistol. See the video at the end of the Helium article:

“Bloodhound SSC 1,000 mph rocket car, land speed record attempt“