Another Contender For the Land Speed Record 85
We've been following developments with the British-led Bloodhound SSC, a jet car aiming to hit 1,000 mph in 2011 and shatter the land speed record. Now reader Thea Chard writes in about a rival project from Washington state, one aiming at 800 mph before the end of 2010 — still plenty fast enough to break the record. "For the past 12 years Ed Shadle, 68, Keith Zanghi, 55, and their 44-man team have been racing to break the world land speed record with the North American Eagle, a converted 1957 F-104 Starfighter 'turbojet car.' Although the team is rushing to beat out their biggest contender, Bloodhound SSC from Great Britain, whose team leader holds the previous land speed record and has secured much more financial support for the project, Shadle and Zanghi hope to run the Eagle at around 800 mph later this year, breaking the sound barrier and setting a new world record for fastest land vehicle."
Not the same race (Score:3, Informative)
Bloodhound-SSC isn't trying to break the land speed record, it's trying to break 1,000mph (which will, incidentally, give it the land speed record). Clearly Eagle needs to beat Bloodhound to achieve their goal, but it doesn't really matter for what Bloodhound is doing whether Eagle succeeds or fails. Hence they're not really in the same race.
Obligatory JATO car reference (Score:4, Informative)
Apparently the origin of that whole thing [cultdeadcow.com].
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:5, Informative)
I used to follow the North American Eagle when they were originally developing their car, but they came across as whining kids complaining about the Brits coming over to break the records in the US and taking the technology back with them, which is odd seeing as Thrust SSC was on the desert at the same time as the Spirit of America team and shared stuff with them. (The SoA should have had the time slot for the run when SSC broke the record, but they let the Brits use it as their car was performing better and they had a chance at the record).
Probably just complaining because the Thrust SSC data wasn't made available to them to copy - although the Bloodhound SSC data is being made publically available. The thing to remember about Bloodhound is that it is a project primarily to get kids interested in science & engineering again and breaking 1000mph is just an extra.
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:1, Informative)
We don't have a speed limit, our road surfaces are pretty good, and there are no pedestrians on the Autobahn.
Tribute to a genius (Score:3, Informative)
Remember, the aerodynamic shape of the F-104 was designed by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson with a slide rule. No computers at all. Actually he designed the whole thing in about a month without any computer modeling.
I wonder what it would take now, to do what he did.
Let's not forget some of Kelly Johnson's other little projects like the P-38 Lightning, and the SR-71.
Re:Safety. (Score:1, Informative)
The original ejector seat in the F-104 was designed to eject downward because of the high T tail. If you lost the engine on takeoff you had to roll it to survive ejection. Don't know if they changed that later.
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Safety. (Score:3, Informative)
The original ejector seat in the F-104 was designed to eject downward because of the high T tail. If you lost the engine on takeoff you had to roll it to survive ejection. Don't know if they changed that later.
According to this F-104 Ejection Seat [ejectionsite.com] the reason for firing downwards was because they didn't have powerful enough ejectors to go upwards (which would help clearing the tail) but later on when they were available then upwards egress was used.
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:4, Informative)
There are many different record categories recognized by various sanctioning bodies. The ones that would probably interest you the most are the "wheel driven" or "piston driven" records, and not the "overall fastest".
Wheel driven records have been set by turbine engines, with the shaft running into a differential, and driving a set of wheels.
Don Vesco has the record at 458.443
The piston driven records are set by a car with one or more HUGE V-8 engines.
Al Teague went 405.976 in one such creation.
They are also over 300 mph slower than the the jet powered cars. There are no rocket powered cars in real competition for world records at the moment,
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:3, Informative)
Apart from Bloodhound SSC, you mean? It has a jet engine, that's true. But that's only to take it up to 300mph or so. The rocket is needed to take it up to 1000mph. Although they're not looking to set any records, the Laffin-gas [laffin-gas.com] car is an interesting pure rocket car. They're only aiming for 400mph or so, but that's still pretty fast, particularly on their relatively small budget, and they have a nice setup that allows a fairly good degree of control. Not least, the ability to shut it off rather than having to wait until it runs out of fuel :-)
Re:Feels like cheating (Score:3, Informative)
Unmanned railed vehicle (rocket sled) 10,400 km/h (6,462 mph) [wikipedia.org]