Bristol Owners' Club - Oxford Branch

Richard Noble and Andy Green have between them held the world Land Speed Record for 25 years! Richard himself held the record (633 mph in 1983) as the driver of Thrust 2. He then broke his own record, as project director with Andy Green as driver, with the supersonic Thrust SSC (763 mph in 1997). This was done with a budget as much as 90% smaller than competing projects. They then went on to take the fastest diesel record with JCB DieselMax (350 mph in 2006) exceeding the previous record by 114 mph. Their new project, Bloodhound SSC, is aiming for 1000 mph (Mach 1.4)!

Although best known for these remarkable Land Speed Record projects, Richard Noble (b.1946) has a number of other amazing projects under his belt. These include London To Cape Town by Land Rover (1972); creating two different aeroplanes (1987 & 2001) and a design for a high-speed ship hull. He also holds a PPL with over 900 hrs flying time, and has been the recipient of some 18 different awards, including the OBE.

Richard recounted the challenges involved in his previous Land Speed Record projects, as well as introducing us to the current project: Bloodhound SSC.
This club meeting had one of the biggest attendances ever and the talk received enthusiatically.

The Bloodhound SSC is unlike anything we have seen before, with a supersonic air intake and a very smart suspension system. At an acceleration rate of 100 mph per second it will reach 1000 mph in just 40 seconds. It will be powered by both a jet (90 kN / 40000 hp) and a rocket (120 kN / 27500 lbs thrust), and its auxiliary engine (for pumping, starting, etc.) is a racing V12 producing 800 bhp, and with an Oxfordshire pedigree!

Apart from reaching 1000 mph, a primary objective is to use this iconic project to enable students to join in the adventure, and thus create a national surge in the popularity of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In other words to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers!

You yourself can share in this amazing project: visit the Bloodhound SSC Web Site and join the 1K Supporters' Club! While you're there, explore the detail of the astonishing challenges in design, propulsion, materials, aerodynamics and not least, safety. You'll also find that the "Firechase" vehicle is, guess what, a supercharged Jaguar XJ!

The first (non rail) record was 39 mph in 1898, but by 1906 cars were going faster than trains! The dates when the following landmark speeds were exceeded were:

       100 mph   1904        200 mph   1927        300 mph   1935        400 mph   1963
       500 mph   1964        600 mph   1965        700 mph   1997

In addition to those above you may like to visit the following Wikipedia links:

       Date      mph        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
       1983      633        Thrust2
       1997      763        ThrustSSC
       2006      350        JCB_Dieselmax
       2011    1000        Bloodhound_SSC

    Richard_Noble     Andy_Green     Daniel_Jubb

    Land_Speed_Record     Filton_Aerodrome     Coventry_Transport_Museum

For the local Oxfordshire firm responsible for the V12 visit: www.mctuk.com/news2.html

On the Thrust SSC Web Site you'll love the stuff on design, aerodynamics, etc at: www.ThrustSSC.com/thrustssc/contents_frames.html

There is a very interesting page about Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_Fluid_Dynamics

And there are CFD animations (including the Mach 1.0 surface as Thrust SSC accelerates!) on the Swansea University Web Site at:
http://www.swan.ac.uk/engineering/Research/CivilandComputationalEngineeringCentre/ ResearchAreas/ComputationalFluidDynamics/