After eight years of hard work, the inventors of a supersonic car designed to travel at speeds of up to 1,000 mph have unveiled the would-be record setter to the world during an event held Thursday at Canary Wharf in London.
According to NBC News and The Verge, the 44-foot long, pencil-shaped, 7.5-ton Bloodhound SSC is capable of producing a theoretical 135,000 brake horsepower (bhp) and accelerating from zero to 1,000 mph in just 55 seconds. While it has yet to be fully tested, the jet engine is said to be capable of propelling the vehicle one mile in a mere 3.6 seconds at its top speed.
Once it maxes out its speed, the Bloodhound SSC will take another 65 seconds to decelerate. The car will generate 2G of sustained acceleration as it accelerates and 3G as it begins to decelerate – the force equivalent to going from 60 mph to 0 mph in one second, media reports indicate. It will produce seven times the thrust of all Formula 1 cars combined, said NBC.
Car will attempt to hit 800mph next October
After the Bloodhound is complete, it will undergo low-speed testing in the UK, and if successful in those trials, it will attempt to reach 800 mph and set a new land-speed record in October 2016. For that event, British Royal Air Force fighter pilot Andy Green will drive the vehicle at a special track being built at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa’s Northern Cape.
In order to set a new land-speed record, Wired explained, the Bloodhound will have to complete a full mile in one direction, and then turn around and complete a mile in the opposite direction no more than one-hour later. The average speed of both runs will be recorded and used to determine if the car set a new record. The goal is to try for 1,000 mph during the first half of 2017.
This week marked the first time that the supersonic car had been shown in the configuration that will be used in that record-setting attempt, the Bloodhound team said in a statement. Among the noteworthy features is a two-meter high tail fin for stability, and the removal of the carbon fiber panels from one side to give the public a look at the vehicle’s engine and other technology.
The Bloodhound SSC has three separate braking systems and has been outfitted with twice as many sensors (500) as a Formula One car. This will enable engineers to measure its performance throughout each high speed run. The car also has been equipped with seven fire extinguishers as well as 12 built-in cameras, including two newly-added ones inside the car’s cockpit.
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Image credit: The Bloodhound Project
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