The Bluebird Project

Yes, a brief item on the local news said they had moved to a new base in Gloucetershire, not far from where I live.

Interesting snippet, a mate of mine who helped with some development work at the start of the project, revealed that an early version of the design used a formula 1 engine to power the fuel pump for the rocket motor. One helluva pump to need a f1 engine as the prime mover. Not sure if this is still the case with the latest iteration of the design though.

Jef

Anybody else watching the Bloodhound updates on YouTube? 491mph, without breaking sweat. Impressive stuff....
https://youtu.be/mrerP1ae6A4

Been watching that and, yes, impressive stuff, but it looks like taking big bites in a short time frame. Maybe team and vehicle are perfectly up to doing that but I was surprised at the rate at which they are upping the speeds. Also, did anyone see that a piece of titanium panel was peeling away even at these relatively low speeds. SSC didn't begin to properly destroy its panels until it was supersonic or thereabouts. Best they put a proper fix on that - not the sort of failure you want developing all of a sudden! But very best of luck to them. We know just how much hard work goes into running an old jet boat, which I'd guess is child's play next to operating that sophisticated beastie.

In other news - anyone catch this?

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertain ... 166850002/

Over 600 today....
https://youtu.be/EKvdcjSufZ8

They are certainly making this part of the project look easy. Let's hope they find the resources and harness the engineering to get the rocket part of the project on the rails at the earliest.