Bloodhound project seeks new driver in pursuit of 800mph

Bloodhound, the British jet-rocket car bidding to propulsion the satellite onshore velocity grounds beyond 800mph, is connected the hunt for a well-heeled caller operator to assistance fulfil its creators’ long-held dream.

Bloodhound’s lone operator truthful far, and the existing velocity grounds holder, Wing Commander Andy Green, is lasting speech successful the interests of raising the funds the task needs for its adjacent phase. But he’ll proceed to beryllium a captious portion of the squad arsenic the caller driver’s mentor and coach. 

Green, a erstwhile accelerated pitchy pilot, believes the caller operator volition ideally beryllium idiosyncratic with aviator level skills, oregon a apical extremity racing driver. He besides confirms that he’ll beryllium connected manus to thrust successful lawsuit the caller enlistee decides that 500mph is enough, but is consenting to money the adjacent grounds run, a bid to bushed 800mph.

While the hunt goes on, the task is being reconfigured to present its world-beating show successful a new, zero-emissions guise – and go a prospective pioneer successful the improvement of synthetic fuels that volition powerfulness the low-emissions intercontinental craft of tomorrow.

Bloodhound's owner, Ian Warhurst, estimates that the task will need astir £12 million to bushed 800mph, its superior objective. It began beingness with a humble £600,000 authorities assistance 15 years ago. 

Backers person been displaying a full-size replica of the car astatine 7 venues successful England – opening with the British Motor Museum astatine Gaydon – successful a bid to “attract passionate and skilled individuals who are acceptable to propulsion the boundaries of velocity and aspire to go portion of history by driving the fastest car connected Earth".

The "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” will instrumentality spot connected a specially prepared way in South Africa.

The project, calved retired of a speech 20 years agone betwixt Green and his predecessor-cum-project organiser Richard Noble, has passed done respective sets of hands, encountering what looked similar terminal fiscal problems and astatine 1 signifier came wrong a time of being chopped up for scrap earlier being rescued by Warhurst.

Most recently, the task was knocked disconnected people by a deficiency of funds and the effects of the Covid pandemic. It has been successful abeyance ever since, stored successful Coventry’s Transport Museum with 2 earlier Thrust grounds breakers. 

Bloodhound CEO Stuart Edmondson said: “As we participate a caller section of the Bloodhound LSR project, I'm excited astir the accidental and challenges that prevarication ahead and assured that this volition alteration america to instrumentality to South Africa and acceptable a caller record. 

“With a caller driver, on with my purpose of not utilizing fossil fuels to acceptable a caller FIA Outright World Land Speed Record, the task promises to beryllium exciting, engaging and applicable astatine truthful galore levels.”

Bloodhound’s zero-emissions push

Powered by accepted pitchy fuel, Bloodhound ran successfully successful 2019 astatine speeds of up to 628mph (the existent record, achieved by the aforesaid squad with the Thrust SCC car successful 1997, stands astatine 763.035mph) connected a specially prepared way astatine Hakskeen Pan successful the northbound of South Africa.

However, the accomplishment of new CEO Edmondson, with a extremist program to tally the car’s Rolls-Royce-made Eurofighter Typhoon engines connected specially formulated zero-emissions synthetic fuel, has transformed the project’s relevance and appeal, particularly since the car’s erstwhile high-capacity ICE-powered substance pump has besides been ditched successful favour of an EV pump and a lightweight battery.

Edmondson, a task manager and nonrecreational fast-jet technologist who joined Bloodhound successful 2014 astatine the extremity of a 19-year Royal Air Force career, believes Bloodhound tin lend invaluable information towards the “rapidly accelerating and precise exciting” improvement of tomorrow’s pitchy fuels.

“Our Rolls-Royce EJ200 motor powers thing similar 1000 pitchy fighters successful usage crossed the world, and they’re apt to beryllium astir for years to come,” helium said. “It helps a batch that our tests are fundamentally safe, due to the fact that our car is ever connected the crushed if thing goes wrong.”

Edmondson admits that arsenic “a fire-breathing instrumentality of the aged school”, Bloodhound had mislaid its relevance, but arsenic a idiosyncratic of synthetic fuels, it has go important each implicit again.

He besides hopes that this alteration volition renew the project's appeal to young people. Bloodhound has ever acceptable large store by its interaction with students, hoping it volition promote them to travel STEM subjects.

Apart from its Rolls-Royce jet, the different large constituent of Bloodhound’s powerfulness battalion is its Norwegian-made Nammo rocket motor, which provides the immense powerfulness needed to instrumentality Bloodhound’s apical velocity from astir 650mph to beyond 800mph.

That centrifugal has ever been arsenic greenish arsenic they get, Edmondson pointed out. It's fuelled by hydrogen peroxide, whose lone emissions are steam and oxygen.

Given that it's already 14 years since the Bloodhound project began and that determination person been galore successes and reverses on the way, Edmondson is reluctant to enactment a binding day connected the car’s reappearance successful action.

But the team, the car, the way and the South African authorities are each acceptable to spell again, helium said, truthful with the close funding, the car could easy beryllium acceptable to tally by 2024.