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Breaking the sound barrier
A jet and rocket - powered car design to go quicker than strait is back on track . The British - build Bloodhound car is theoretically capable of traveling at 1,000 miles per hour .
That ’s Mach 1.3 – about 240 miles per hour quicker than the speed of sound .
The project ran into financial difficulty a few years ago , but now it has fresh backer and will attempt to specify a new land speed track record in the next 12 to 18 months .
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Desert track
The Bloodhound has been ship to a desert track in the Northern Cape responsibility of South Africa for a unexampled round of tests . The test are design to measure the aerodynamic strain on the car and to test out its brake systems . So far it ’s reach 501 mph ( 806 km / h ) .
Absolutely aerodynamic
Bloodhound car is drive by a Rolls - Royce EJ200 fanjet spirt engine — the same as used for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft . For its supersonic endeavour at the estate velocity disk , it will be fitted with an additional rocket pusher made by a Norwegian and Finnish company . The automobile is desire to be as narrow as potential , to avoid sleek stresses . It weighs 7 tons , and its carbon - vulcanized fiber body ride about 5 inch above the ground .
Land speed record
The existing farming speed disk is 763 mph ( 1,228 kilometre / h ) . It was set by former Royal Air Force pilot program Andy Green in 1997 , driving the Thrust SSC ultrasonic vehicle in Nevada ’s Black Rock Desert . Now , Green is driving the Bloodhound for its speed mental test in South Africa — and he will be behind the wheel for the coming phonograph recording attempts .
Golden Arrow car
The desired land upper phonograph record has a history proceed back more than 100 year . It was first recorded in France in 1898 , when Gaston de Chasseloup - Laubat drive an electric elevator car at a fastness of 39 miles per hour . The first car to break 100 miles per hour was in Belgium in 1904 , driven by Louis Rigollay . The Golden Arrow car shown here , driven by Henry Seagrave , set a raw land speed book of 231 miles per hour in 1929 .
Bluebird CN7
One of the most famous land pep pill record attempt was in the Bluebird CN7 in 1964 . Donald Campbell ram the gas pedal turbine elevator car , which reached a top speed of 403 mph . Campbell also assay several water speed record , and he remains the only person to have set universe estate and water swiftness records in the same yr , in 1964 . But he died in crash during a weewee speed try in 1967 .
Thrust SSC
The only machine ever to go quicker than the speed of auditory sensation is Thrust SSC , which arrange the subsist land speed record of 763 miles per hour ( 1,228 klick / h ) in Nevada in 1997 . The jet-propelled plane - powered motorcar was driven by Andy Green , who will also drive the Bloodhound when it attempts to exceed that speed and set a new land upper record .
Virtual wind tunnel
engineer have designed the Bloodhound with powerful estimator that create a " virtual jazz tunnel , " detail the behavior of the motorcar at higher and higher f number . travel quicker than the speed of sound is now straightforward for supersonic special K aircraft — but breaking the sound roadblock a few in above the primer is a very different challenge . Aerodynamic engineers say the narrow-minded gap between the underbelly of the cable car and the ground is especially problematic .
Perfect track
The Bloodhound squad will spend a duad of week on the test track in South Africa , measuring the performance of the car and liken it to the computing machine models created in the practical tip burrow simulations . They are also checking out the car ’s braking systems , admit a chute and air brake . South Africa ’s summertime rainwater will then set in to the realm , flooding the lakebed where the track has been built and making the ground stratum again for further tests next year in 2020 .
How fast can it go?
If all the examination goes according to plan , Bloodhound will attempt to set a new land focal ratio record in the gloam of 2020 or early 2021 . Whether the gondola will attempt to go even quicker — and eventually reach its theoretic top speed of 1,000 mph — will count on the outcomes of the test and record attempt .
to begin with put out onLive Science .
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