Agree, lets hope they get some support
This is a big shame
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/i...administration
Agree, lets hope they get some support
Wasn't there some connection with Bloodhound and Rolex Airking? I seem to recall a car enthusiast AD telling me about it a while ago
Quick buy up all those remaining Air Kings!
It's just a matter of time...
I sincerely hope an investor (or two) will take this onboard. I saw - and heard! - it at Newquay Airport a few years ago when it was in its early stages and the noise it produced was phenomenal, it literally is a rocket on wheels.
Fingers crossed it will run again.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I don’t want to come across as a killjoy, but what exactly is the point of a super fast rocket car? Pointless white elephant? I wouldn’t invest a penny if it was me. I mean, in the Evel Knievel hairy chested 70’s sure. But it’s 2018, I’m sure it’ll get Clarkson, May and the little bloke excited, and it can feature in macho car shows about ‘power’ - but erm, who cares?
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Because it's there?
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Pushing the boundaries... proving what we can achieve, and using the learnings along the way, sometimes for more every day uses
Just to throw in talk about bicycles. Denise Mueller-Korenek recently set the bicycle land speed record at 183.9mph. ;)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45572277
Towed to 100mph, then slip stream after that. Probably didn't cost 25 million.
Best wishes,
Bob
That one I really did not understand. I do not see how that is a bicycle land speed record when it was towed up to speed and then slipstreamed! I'd expect it to be someone on a bicycle pedalling like crazy up to speed (no doubt considerably lower than that record), not a bicycle+other vehicles.
I'm inclined to agree. I once came down a pass in the Rockies at speed (trying to brake caused the glue holding my tubulars on the rim to soften :)), but I wouldn't even count that. No wind and relatively flat would be good. Or, an indoor track, even if banked, would be okay.
The unpaced record is more like 90mph with a recumbent.
Best wishes,
Bob
The BBC are saying the project has been axed. They failed to get the £25m needed.
What a crying shame.
Was always on the cards TBH... would have liked to have seen my name on the tail fin though.
Will keep an eye out for the inevitable asset auction. There are bound to be some bits that I can afford.
Hmm..... I get the ‘because it’s there’ comment, but that’s a lot of money (turns out too much money) to really back that up. And I’m not sure how much a rocket car will really add to scientific knowledge that runs into everyday life. Just a monumental waste of money - di** waving nonsense
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it will always have intrinsic value and hopefully see a return on that ‘investment’ for all time (until the world collapse and we end up killing each other or starving when you can’t swap a rolex for food)
paying for a rocket car that once went fast and may or may not break a record perhaps isn’t ‘worth’ 25 million.
Buying the car for £250k seems a bargain! As has been previously mentioned this project fits well with red bull.
Land and water speed record attempts here in the U.K. always seem to walk a tight rope between success and bankruptcy it seems.
A shame it’s now canned.
I guess stuff like this is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the modern world, and unless future projects are genuinely linked to advancing technology somehow and/or providing genuine training opportunities for folks, there won’t be many more of them.
It was also billed as a way to get people interested in engineering. It's big halo projects like this that can really capture people's imagination, maybe inspire the next generation.
There's also the element of national pride - who gets their first, though those are probably dirty words.
Yes, in itself, getting a car to do 1000 mph doesn't really further humanity - it's not as if we're all going to be buying them next year, but I for one am sad that it's been canned.
And there may well have been some trickle down in technology in the same way that sometimes things get passed on from motor racing.
I do wonder whether they spent too long in the build up and therefore lost people’s interest. I also have the lingering worry that some were too interested in making money from running it as a business, rather than focus on getting it done.
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Good luck to them and I’m sorry for them that it didn’t work out.
Just a personal view from me, but I think the romance of land speed records rests with the wheel driven cars, rather than jets and rockets. A wheel driven vehicle has some relationship to our cars, whereas the jets and rockets are more like aircraft. Plenty of room for improvement without spending £25m.
Hence I am more impressed by 450mph in this...
Especially as it is 50 years old and the driver even older.
https://www.driving.co.uk/news/pensi...-speed-record/
It’s a shame to see it go into administration but it took too long to get up and running and times have changed - an electric car land speed record is more likely to catch the imagination of both sponsors and the general public these days.
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The post above on wheel driven records resonates heavily with me.
I feel, as a mechanical engineer, that vehicles like Bloodhound SSC / Thrust SSC / Spirit of America / Blue Flame etc... are just design projects whereby aircraft designs are being modified to fly on the ground.
The best recent example of this is (arguably) Bloodhounds main competitor the 'North American Eagle Project' which, to my eyes, bears way too much similarity to the Lockheed Starfighter it is based upon.
I think when you modify an aircraft to fly fast on the deck it's not really a relevant land speed record anymore.
However, I also contributed to Bloodhound and I'm sad to see it fail.
Vanity projects rarely end well unless they have a receptive billionaire to hand. At least the daftness of this project is now nipped in the bud.
BBC
The Bloodhound supersonic vehicle - built with a jet engine bolted to a rocket - is all but finished complete*.
Its future was in jeopardy amid a failure to secure investment which forced the firm financing it into administration.
But Yorkshire-based entrepreneur Ian Warhurst has bought the project for an "undisclosed amount".
Administrator Andrew Sheridan, said: "Ian has a strong background in managing highly successful businesses in the automotive engineering sector and he will bring considerable expertise to bear in taking the project forward.
"He will be outlining his plans for the project in detail early in the New Year."
Mr Sheridan said the Ministry of Defence and Rolls Royce had both backed the buyout.
Last edited by PickleB; 17th December 2018 at 12:11. Reason: * my edit for clarity of meaning
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Excellent news!!!
A lot of negativity on this thread for some reason. This is pushing the boundaries of science, providing jobs and helping the reputation of engineering etc in the UK
It is good news. I wish the project every success.
Very pleased to read that this may actually run and go for the record.
It's just a matter of time...
It’s not negativity (from me anyway), it’s just realism.
Aircraft with two of Bloodhounds engines go past my office window multiple times a day, I’m just not sure how fitting one to a car advances science at all.
My biggest problem with Bloodhound is it’s fugly. They say form follows function but also usually if something looks right it goes right. And Bloodhound looks wrong to me.
I’m pleased it has a new backer, I do hope it’s genuine and not just a way for an established company to obtain some assets on the cheap though.
If they could work some electric wizardry into the effort, or even some kind of hybrid (although with a rocket and an aircraft engine it already is I suppose), then I could see some relevance to it.
As it is, Space X are already doing the rocket thing better, and aircraft are doing the jet thing...
Great news
Pushing the boundaries of science, by using a nearly 30 year old engine with rockets that were first used 70 years ago isn't really pushing many boundaries, if they were to come up with some way of increasing the specific impulse by weight on a new design to break the record then i'd be impressed.
Bloodhound land speed project to resume trials this October
The high-speed trials will enable the team to test the live video stream in preparation for the land speed record runs, currently scheduled for late 2020.
Ian Warhurst said: "I'm thrilled that we can announce Bloodhound's first trip to South Africa for these high speed testing runs. This world land speed record campaign is unlike any other, with the opportunities opened up by digital technology that enabled the team to test the car's design using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and that will allow us to gather and share data about the car's performance in real time...
Back from depths. Apparently now the third fastest British car of all time. Link
Twitter link and:
Brilliant that it’s up and running again! I wouldn’t fancy doing 500mph in that let alone 1000mph!
501mph today!.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........