About Bloodhound

Features

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• The engine

  The car will use three engines to enable it to reach 1,000mph.

  In the middle of the Bloodhound SSC is the Cosworth V8 F1 800 bhp race engine which doubles as the APU delivering hydraulic power as needed, starting the EJ200 and of course pumping the high test peroxide (HTP) through to the Falcon rocket. The pump has to move a ton of HTP through to the rockt catalyst in 22 seconds and at 1200 psi.

  The beauty of the hybrid rocket is that it uses a safe and green oxidiser in the shape of HTP and only burns its solid fuel as long as the HTP is flowing. Shut the HTP flow off and the rocket shuts down in safety. No emergency problems of having mechanically to jettison a burning solid fuel rocket or running the risk of an explosion from shutting down a bi-propellant rocket with horizontal combustion chambers.

• The power plants

  The car will use a jet and hybrid rocket. The rocket provides raw power but is an on/off device so with rocket power alone it would be difficult to hit and hold selected Mach numbers for the aerodynamicists to gain their data. And at these speeds the team has to tread very carefully, increasing the Mach numbers in small, careful steps.

  The Eurojet EJ200 will give power controllability. The typhoon engine is incredibly small and light for its power and of course is a fully developed engine, enabling the team to control the output of the combination of rocket and jet by throttling the jet alone.

• The body

  The Bloodhound SSC shape is completely different to anything seen before. They need to minimise the cross-sectional area to minimise drag, but they also need a supersonic intake and a smart suspension system which will enable the car to run smoothly over the rough salt surfaces.

  Because the rocket is positioned above the EJ200 and thus raises the centre of gravity, the rear wheels need to be positioned on suspension outrigged on draggy struts. In the past this was always seen as a huge aerodynamic disadvantage - one that made the famed Budweiser Rocket wheelbarrow at times - but today running computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with multi-million elements, we can compute the drag of the wheels and struts at Mach 1.4 and optimise the shape to minimise drag and shock effects.

• The fin

  The large fin ensures directional stability so the car travels in a straight line during the race. If the fin was to be too large, the car would be severely affected by crosswind and not enough fin means that the car will be directionally unstable. One of the key design issues is whether there is enough fin area to control the car directionally when the afterburner is brought in and the rocket is at low Mach numbers.

• The wheels

  The car has to run through a wide speed range and keep the same loads on all four wheels. The little winglets above the wheels are fully dynamic trimmers making small adjustments in microseconds. They are not there to develop massive download as needed for a wheel driven circuit-racing car, but simply to maintain constant wheel load up to Mach 1.4.

  The rear wheels covers

  The rear wheel covers are going to attract considerable attention as they look like something from a sci-fi movie. The team has to reduce supersonic drag - hence the pointed parts front and rear - and also protect the upper surface of the wheel from the oncoming airflow where, if unprotected, it would reach Mach 2.8. Inside the wheel arches there are also problems – the 900 mm (35.8 in) wheels are wasting energy winding up and whirling the airflow in the wheel bays, so the bays have to be ventilated to reduce power losses.