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Rocket-propelled car could hit 1,000 mph

By | October 4, 2012, 3:00 AM PDT

The current land speed record of 763 miles per hour is about to be smashed.

A British team is hoping to build a car that can go 1,000 miles per hour. The Bloodhound supersonic car will not be moving entirely on its own, however. It will be paired with a fighter jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon.

The team performed a successful test of the rocket in a military hangar in the English town of Newquay.

“That’s exactly what I was hoping to see,” said Andy Green, the the Royal Air Force fighter pilot who will be behind the wheel during the attempt to break the land speed record. “That was a hugely successful, very, very important experiment for us.”

The test was performed using a tank which contained peroxide-based rocket fuel, as well as a Cosworth Formula One engine, which pumped fuel into the combustion chamber. It produced 14,200 pounds of thrust, with the engine running at 16,000 revolutions per minute.

See a video of the test:

Photo: Bloodhound

via [Reuters]

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Channtal Fleischfresser

About Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Contributing Editor

Channtal Fleischfresser has worked for The Economist, WNET/Channel 13, Al Jazeera English, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is based in New York.

Follow her on Twitter.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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0 Votes
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Confusing article
A rocket motor is very different from a 'jet' engine and the Typhoon/Eurofighter is powered by the Eurojet EJ200 Turbofan. Also, liquid rocket fuels are a combination of two substances, such as kerosene and (hydrogen) peroxide, an oxidizer. As the engine is not designed or intended to be used in an exo-atmospheric environment the need for an oxidizing agent to provide oxygen isn't significant. Could it be that the engine under test has been modified to use a rocket type liquid fuel combination in the afterburner stage?
Posted by LyndaBarry
4th Oct
0 Votes
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problematic
14,000 pounds of thrush............inertia dampeners have not been invented yet
....... i guess we are gonna scrape the smear off the seat to congradulate it.

i think some one has not thought about this yet.
Posted by Hobbits
4th Oct
0 Votes
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thrust
It will be OK as long as they don't apply all that thrust starting from zero velocity... the purpose of that much thrust is to overcome wind resistance at high speed, so if they start off at lower thrust and accelerate continuously at 3 G-forces or less, ramping up the thrust to counter wind drag at the same rate that the drag increases, the driver will probably survive the acceleration. I do hope they have done their aeronautical engineering well enough to be sure it will survive the shockwave produced when they break the sound barrier while flying at zero altitude...
Posted by kricci
4th Oct
0 Votes
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"Darwin Award"
Remember the classic email urban legend about the rocket-powered car that smashed into a cliff and earned its inventor the "Darwin Award"? These guys will probably survive though, as long as they stick to running it on salt flats and don't have a fire...
Posted by kricci
4th Oct
+1 Vote
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Thrust
Um, the Space Shuttle main engines about 500k pounds thrust X3 = 1.5 million pounds thrust plus two solid rocket boosters at 1.5 million pounds each for a total of 4.5 million pounds thrust at launch, all applied when the shuttle is at rest. As far as I know no astronauts have had to be sponged off of seats due to the acceleration. This rocket car should have no problem.
Posted by Paul The Red
5th Oct
0 Votes
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Why waste fuel and money with this nonsense?
How about something practical like a magnalev train rather than an airplane redesigned to run on the ground. Also that thrust must be applied gradually, if you start with it it will crush a human occupant.
Posted by Arctic Char
5th Oct
0 Votes
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fun.
This is fun. Better do it quick before someone puts a stop to it.
Posted by opcom
8th Oct
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