By Chris Wickham
LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) – This time next year, British
fighter pilot Andy Green will strap himself into a
rocket-powered car for test runs in a bid to accelerate to 1,000
miles per hour (1,600 kilometers per hour) and smash his own
land speed record.
That’s the plan. In the meantime, the team building the
Bloodhound supersonic car faces a milestone on Oct. 3 – they
will test-fire the rocket they hope will push it through the
sound barrier and well past the existing record of 763 mph set
15 years ago.
It will be the biggest rocket test in Britain for about 20
years and will bring together the components of the rocket,
including a Cosworth Formula One engine that will be used just
to pump fuel into the combustion chamber.
“This is the first time we have brought all the elements
together,” said Mark Chapman, the project’s chief engineer who
has a background in aerospace design that included work on the
Joint Strike Fighter.
Chapman said a flawless test run would be the best outcome
next week but an explosion that provides lessons and drives
design improvements would also be counted a success.
“The worst thing that could happen is for nothing to
happen,” he told reporters.
The rocket will be tested in a bomb-proof military hangar at
Newquay airport in southwest England with the team in a control
room 250 metres away.
Dan Jubb, the project’s 28-year-old self-taught rocket
engineer who sports an impressive handlebar moustache, said the
team will leave the doors on the test hangar slightly ajar in
case there is an explosion.
Continued…
