The Bloodhound, a supersonic vehicle that will attempt to break the world land-speed record, was recently fitted with its engine for the first time. Weighing 1,000kg, the EJ200 jet engine produces some 20,000lb of thrust and is more commonly found in the Typhoon jet-fighter.
The engine was raised from its storage cradle at the Bloodhound Technical Centre in Avonmouth, near Bristol, by a hand-operated pulley and manoeuvred over the chassis before being lowered into place. Once in position, the engine and the carbon-composite air-intake duct were joined up and everything was secured into place ready for the next stage.
The whole process took the Bloodhound engineers eight hours to complete. Chief engineer Mark Chapman said: “This is a fantastic moment in the project. It’s great to see the jet engine fitted; it validates the many years of hard work by our team of motor-sport and aerospace engineers.”
In the jet fighter, the EJ200 is designed to be hung from a single trunnion as the mounting point, so Bloodhound replicates this. The upper chassis is made of aluminium to which titanium stringers and titanium skin will be fixed using glue and some 1,400 aircraft-grade rivets.
The lower chassis (below the jet) is made of aluminium and steel and houses the Nammo hybrid rocket; the two power plants between them produce the equivalent of 135,000 thrust horse power — or 180 F1 cars.
The Bloodhound is scheduled to do a 200mph test at Newquay’s Aerohub next summer. It will then travel to South Africa’s Hakskeen Pan and attempt to break the 1,000mph barrier on a custom-built 12-mile track.
The current land speed record is 763.035mph and was set by Thrust SSC, a British jet-propelled car, in October 1997. It became the first car to officially break the sound barrier at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.