I paid for my name on the fin the first time, might buy something from the shop as Tony suggests.
Bloodhound LSR. Some cool footage and some news.
- Thread starter Tony Lockhart
- Start date
I paid for my name on the fin the first time, might buy something from the shop as Tony suggests.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Latest video
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
And this little piece of film still puts a lump in my throat. Just remember, there’s a bloke sat inside that:
martin clark
pinko bodger
For history of LSR vehicles and attempts, this little youtube channel is wonderful - it's been going a while, and no idea why so few subscribers when the content and production is great. His very first post was on Thrust 2...
Do enjoy Scarf & Goggles
Do enjoy Scarf & Goggles
martin clark
pinko bodger
Superb recent Bloodhound LSR vid - on a simple but critical aspect - how they are marking the target line
- it's a world away from previous LSR attempts!
(but GPS-dsciplined line and level is common in agriculture these days, and even construction - I've a current project where the site strip/building formation levels/ etc for 17 buildings and their intervening stepped courtyards spread over 3Ha were all set by digital data, right out of our production model, controlled via Trimble kit on the diggers and 360dgree slew excavators. It's pretty amazing tech: potential for <10mm level accuracy, at the far reach, >8m, of a 20tonne bit of kit over a precisely-defined area... also defined by world coordinates to silly accuracy. Even when it all looks like mud.)
- it's a world away from previous LSR attempts!
(but GPS-dsciplined line and level is common in agriculture these days, and even construction - I've a current project where the site strip/building formation levels/ etc for 17 buildings and their intervening stepped courtyards spread over 3Ha were all set by digital data, right out of our production model, controlled via Trimble kit on the diggers and 360dgree slew excavators. It's pretty amazing tech: potential for <10mm level accuracy, at the far reach, >8m, of a 20tonne bit of kit over a precisely-defined area... also defined by world coordinates to silly accuracy. Even when it all looks like mud.)
martin clark
pinko bodger
@Tim Jones - Rolls-Royce EJ200 - far more modern!
Much newer, I think they managed to blag a couple of test units with big hours from the Typhoon project if memory is correct. Not to mention the rocket that is yet to be strapped on!
@Tony Lockhart again, that latest vid looks insane at x2, especially the wide angle shots!
Can't wait for this now, I hope it goes to plan and they get a proper attempt at full chat, even if it doesn't achieve the numbers they want it should be some spectacle!
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
What made you think it was either of those dinosaurs?
The website for the whole project is quite open, and the social media feeds are regular updated.
Tim Jones
pfm Member
What made you think it was either of those dinosaurs?
The website for the whole project is quite open, and the social media feeds are regular updated.
A dim memory of Thrust 2 probably.
I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole effort tbh. It's all a bit...Clarkson/Partridge.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Not sure if serious
martin clark
pinko bodger
wut?? It's a world away from that: always had been.
Watch the vids. On planned run profile 6, they've repeatedly taken a new vehicle past 500mph. Safely, repeat-ably, with incredible telemetry and public video explaining what went well, what needs fixing. It's already well inside the top-10 fastest ever LSR attempts, but more often, and that merely in testing. On the jet alone it has potential for 650mph, and that'd put it ahead of Blue Flame, in the top4 fastest ever LSR runs. Watch and wait; and remember this is only a test season - the first attempt with the added rocket is at least a year away.
Think about that a bit more: the whole programme is a work of utter precision, input from many disciplines, and learning & safety first. An object lesson in how such a stupidly-difficult thing (way more difficult than approaching M 1 in an aircraft) should & must be developed; a testament not only to the current project sponsors and team, but the incredible foundation specification, design and fabrication work achieved by the Bloodhound team from the very outset when fronted by Richard Noble.
If nothing else - the education dividend the whole programme has assiduously pursued from inception in terms of the desire to inspire the next generation of Engineers is wonderful.
If anyone thinks such a thing is merely Clarkson/top gear writ large - I despair.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Well put, Martin.
Tim Jones
pfm Member
Very eloquent, thank you. But I'm still not sure what difference it makes to anything.
What, for example, is the point of trying to run ground vehicles past Mach 1? If there is a way of doing this for passengers, isn't it reasonably obvious that it's not on the ground?
martin clark
pinko bodger
No.
The point is, the pure pursuit of a scientific objective - where is the limit?
It's not a transport device: it is a pure exploration of the unknown, in and of and for that end: the kind of thing, amongst many other things, that takes us a little further from the mouth of the cave we crawled out of, every day. Wind the timeline back - and once upon a time some similar idiotic idea explains why we don't have to trap woolly mammoths for our daily bread.
And even then Ugg likely complained - but we already know how to catch tasty mammoths... oblivious to the benefits that agriculture might bring: a whole different chapter.
That's it, and that's all: call it human endeavour.
The point is, the pure pursuit of a scientific objective - where is the limit?
It's not a transport device: it is a pure exploration of the unknown, in and of and for that end: the kind of thing, amongst many other things, that takes us a little further from the mouth of the cave we crawled out of, every day. Wind the timeline back - and once upon a time some similar idiotic idea explains why we don't have to trap woolly mammoths for our daily bread.
And even then Ugg likely complained - but we already know how to catch tasty mammoths... oblivious to the benefits that agriculture might bring: a whole different chapter.
That's it, and that's all: call it human endeavour.
vuk
\o/ choose anarchy
the objectives i see here are a mix of marketing, personal ambition and some guys having fun with big toys. that's perfectly fine in our world, but this is not how hypothesis testing in science is carried out.
i'll be happy to watch some documentary in the end that describes the engineering challenges (i really enjoy that sort of thing), but i don't really feel any excitement about the day to day of breaking a world record -- how juvenile is that? tim's comparison to clarkson doesn't capture the entirety of the effort, but there is an element of that, along with a hot dog eating contest.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Said people who’ve not achieved anything?
The involvement of schools has been huge. Something as big as this gets the attention of kids who then have their interest in engineering sparked up. For me it was going to airshows and seeing/feeling fast jets at just under Mach 1. Air shows are lame now. Engineering has been a dirty word for a few decades, so anything that creates an interest amongst children for speed, jets, rockets and extremes is a good thing in my book.
But hey. Arguments about mains leads are what humans were put here for!
The involvement of schools has been huge. Something as big as this gets the attention of kids who then have their interest in engineering sparked up. For me it was going to airshows and seeing/feeling fast jets at just under Mach 1. Air shows are lame now. Engineering has been a dirty word for a few decades, so anything that creates an interest amongst children for speed, jets, rockets and extremes is a good thing in my book.
But hey. Arguments about mains leads are what humans were put here for!
vuk
\o/ choose anarchy
engineering a dirty word? really? can you back that up? if so, i am totally with you, but it seems a bit perverse to suggest that rocket-propelled land vehicles are any sort of idealistic goal for the profession in our era of climate catastrophe.