Now that the sound barrier has already been exceeded, you do not think that everything is there. Currently already are three teams preparing to set a new speed record. An American team, one British and one Australian were preparing to set a new land speed record.
The American team, composed of Americans and Canadians, will the North American Eagle, while the British with the now famous Bloodhound SSC and Australians in Aussie Invader 5R. However, only two of them have proposed an even greater milestone overcome the barrier of 1,000 mph (1,600 km / h).
North American Eagle
The team’s ambitions of North American Eagle (USA and Canada) are more modest. They prepare to beat the absolute record of Andy Green (763 mph), but without trying to exceed 1,000 mph. Your project is more pragmatic and less expensive, as is roughly in an F-104 wingless improved (motor General Electric LM – 1500 Turbojet 52,000 hp).
The initial idea for this project came from Ed Shadle, a pilot of cars and motorcycles amateur decided to break the speed record at 70 years. To do so he bought an old Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for $ 25,000 and was renovating in his garage to turn it into a car record.
And Ed is convinced that either succeed because it has found that the number of its F-104, while serving at the base of Edwards (California), was 763. Incidentally, it is the current record of Andy Green (763 mph).
Along with Ed Shable, Jessi Combs also drive the North American Eagle. The presenter and petrol head already holds the record for the fastest woman in the world. At the wheel of the North American Eagle he earned an average of 393,954 mph (632 km / h).
Currently, the car is still in the testing phase raising higher the bar for speed recorded; they have already exceeded 512 mph.
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Aussie Invader 5R
The Aussie Invader is the personal project of Rosco McGlashan, the world’s fastest Australian . Like many others, this obsession with being the fastest comes from far behind. Rosco was 12 when Donald Campbell visited Australia with the Blue Bird CN7 in his attempt speed record. Campbell’s record (403 mph) hit him so much he decided to dedicate his life to be the fastest in the world.
Gradually it became a hole in competitions dragster and lived in it for many years. That allowed him to be gaining notoriety with each new machine and crazy record he wanted. Among his creations, there is a V8 engine with a rocket-powered kart (with world record for the fastest kart) and a number of rocket-propelled cars.
In 1993, Rosco and his team of 25 volunteers manufactured the Aussie Invader II in order to beat the speed record set by Australian Donald Campbell in 1964. The Aussie Invader II equipping Mirage reactor with a capacity of 36,000 hp. In a past, he reached 450 mph, but bad weather prevented him another pass so the record could not be posted. The following year, with an improved version, achieved a record of 500 mph. With this success, breaking the record set by Richard Noble, but the team of Andy Green in Thrust SSC broke the sound barrier and smashed his ambitions.
Maybe that’s why now also aimed at trying to exceed 1,000 mph. The Aussie Invader 5R is, simply, a rocket on wheels. It is 16 m long and weighs 9.3 tonnes with full tanks. The engine burn 2.8 tons of fuel (a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and kerosene) in 20 seconds. The team estimated that the maximum speed is 1,050 mph, i.e. 1,689 km / h or Mach 1.3. With an estimated 200,000 CV (28,100 kg thrust), Maximum power is the most powerful of the two pretenders to exceed 1,000 mph.
Currently, the Aussie Invader is still under construction and development, but the important thing is continuing. Anyway, at this level it is better to go despair and secure development in the rush.
Bloodhound SSC
The aim of the project Bloodhound SSC, led by Richard himself Noble and Andy Green as a driver, is to overcome the psychological barrier of 1,000 mph (1,600 km / h), although initially only was moving from 800 mph to set a new record. To do this, the car driven by Andy Green will propel a jet engine (Rolls-Royce Eurojet EJ200 who borrowed a Eurofighter Typhoon) and a rocket engine designed specifically for the Bloodhound SSC.
At this level, technical difficulties do not focus only on the car (aerodynamics, wheels, motors, etc.) but also the venue for trying. Simply put, there was no place on the planet suitable for this reason that they have chosen to put the “paella” of Hakskeenpan, east of South Africa and minutes from Namibia.
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The Hakskeenpan, was chosen after checking more than 20,000 potential sites via satellite images. Still, the site is not exactly perfect. The team employs 317 people for conditioning the site. Which it has involved removing more than 18,000 tons of rock and earth for 120 days.
The car, which measures 13.47 meters long and 3.66 meters wide, weighs 7.8 tons. With an estimated 136,000 hp (212 kN or 23,000 kp) total power, the Bloodhound SSC should take 3.6 seconds to cover a mile (1.6 km) when at full throttle. Before that, it has a distance of 9 km to go racing. The team estimates that it will take only 55 seconds to reach 1,000 mph.
At that speed, one of the most crucial points in the two pretenders to the club of the 1,000 mph (besides getting a bestial downforce not to take off in the attempt) it is to get wheels able to withstand extraordinary speed rotation. No tire could endure such friction, speed and temperature.
Aussie Invader and Bloodhound SSC used forged aluminum wheels from a special alloy block, different in the two cars. In addition, in the case of Blodhound SSC, the wheels have to withstand 50,000 g acceleration when rotating at 10,200 rpm. When you reach maximum speed, each wheel rotates 170 times in a single second.
Bloodhound SSC construction was completed in September 2015 and Hakskeenpan conditioning. Throughout this year the first tests in the UK airfields (probably RAF) shall be conducted while the first tests at high speed will be in South Africa in 2017 will be made gradually, the first objective in 2017 will be demonstrating an average speed of 800 mph.
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