‘Supersonic’ car is ready to pass the 1,000mph mark and set land speed world record

Oct 31 , 2017

The British Bloodhound Supersonic Car, a combination of a jet engine, Formula One racing car and a spaceship, had a successful 337.9km/h test run

A British car powered by a fighter jet engine, which aims to break the world land speed record by travelling 300 metres in the blink of an eye, has successfully completed its first public test runs.

The British Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC), driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, reached a speed of 337.9km/h in just eight seconds on a 2.7km-long stretch of runway at Cornwall Airport Newquay, in the south of England.

The car behaved brilliantly … We wanted to demonstrate the car is ready to go faster and the team is ready to go faster

Andy Green, driver of Britain’s Bloodhound Supersonic Car

Royal Air Force fighter pilot Andy Green climbs into the cockpit of Bloodhound Supersonic Car before the start of the testing.

“The car behaved brilliantly,” Green told The Telegraph after the two test runs. “We wanted to demonstrate the car is ready to go faster and the team is ready to go faster.”

Green will be driving the car – a combination of a jet engine, Formula One racing car and a spaceship – when he tries to smash the 1,000mph (1,608km/h) barrier by travelling 1.6km in only 3.6 seconds on a dried-out lake bed in the Kalahari Desert, in South Africa, in 2019. That is the equivalent of travelling the length of four and a half soccer pitches laid end to end every second.

The Bloodhound Supersonic Car reached a speed of 337.9km/h in just eight seconds during testing at a runway at Cornwall Airport Newquay in England last Thursday.

The 3.4-metre-long Bloodhound’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, which weighs one tonne, is capable of producing 135,000 horsepower. That’s more than six times the power of all the F1 cars on the starting grid put together.

An illustration showing a cross section of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car.

A crowd of about 3,500 enthusiasts turned up to watch the car’s test run last Thursday, which led to the airport being closed to air traffic for 90 minutes.

The Bloodhound’s Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine, which weighs one tonne, is capable of producing 135,000 horsepower – more than six times the combined power of all the Formula One racing cars on the starting grid.

The car’s public appearance marks the end of a month of tests on the car’s engine – sourced from a Eurofighter Typhoon – steering, brakes, suspension, and data systems.