Another Contender For the Land Speed Record

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."

Comments

Feels like cheating

[the_other_chewey]

I still think that calling all those aircraft-that-just-don't-lift-off cars is cheating. Keeping them on
the ground is in itself quite a feat, I don't deny that at all - but to be called a car, they should be
propelled by their wheels' friction on the ground, not by jet engines and rockets.

I'm actually much more impressed by something like the Dieselmax, even if it is much slower.

Re:Feels like cheating

[sznupi]

...especially when contender is a modified jet fighter, not a vehicle built mostly from the ground up.

Re:Feels like cheating

[91degrees]

There is a record for wheel driven as well. There's room for both of these in the record books. And it's not like it's quite as simple as strapping a big thrust engine on the back of a roller skate so it's worth it as an exercise in engineering.

Re:Feels like cheating

[stiggle]

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

[somersault]

It's more fun watching fast cars navigate corners than watching fast cars go in a straight line. These cars are impressive, but not amazingly entertaining unless they crash. Actually I think the same of F1 when compared to stuff like Touring Cars, DTM and Rally Driving..

Re:Feels like cheating

[MrKaos]

I agree with you. Strapping a set of wheels on a rocket motor is pointless, even though the technical challenges are probably fantastic. In fact, generally speaking, breaking a record just for the sake of being in the Guinness book of records is pointless.

Serco, those guys are just everywhere. The biggest company you've never heard of.

I could understand if the technology they use to achieve the record could be reused some place else, like paving the way to faster high-speed trains for instance, but all they seem to do is apply clever design to make the body as non-lifting as possible, and use big fins to plant the thing firmly on the ground. Nothing earth-shattering, impressive though it may be.

I think this is the first time they have tried putting the jet engine on top of the rocket motor, in a car. The variances in air pressure on the uneven ground may make the research into the control systems that keep the nose on the car worthwhile.

Just sayin.

Re:Feels like cheating

[JasterBobaMereel]

...the land speed record for a wheeled vehicle is 10,400 km/h (6,462 mph) ..... on rails, unmanned

Railed vehicles can go much faster than free wheeled vehicles and the manned speed record was for a railed vehicle ... the only reason they stopped the manned tests was that they did not have a reason for them to be manned ...

Like the steam car record and the diesel car record the "land speed record" is very artificial, many vehicles have gone faster on land, many have gone much faster manned above it ...

Re:Feels like cheating

[OzPeter]

I'm actually much more impressed by something like the Dieselmax, even if it is much slower.

I just read that and now I am impressed. 350mph, 2.7 tonne vehicle (yeah I'm mixing units) and a fuel tank size of 9 litres. And according to that article they only limited themselves to 350 as a safety precaution for the tires, and they weren't even in top gear!

Re:Feels like cheating

[Skynyrd]

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,

An airplane?

[Thanshin]

They should've used an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Just put it horizontal, add some wheels and sit on it.

Screaming "YeeeeeHa!" as it starts is optional.

The hat isn't.

Obligatory JATO car reference

[Alex Belits]

Apparently the origin of that whole thing.

The real competition is the Aussies

[OzPeter]

When the story about the Brits was run I pointed out *then* that there were 3 groups trying to break the land speed record. The Yanks will be doomed to be "also ran's" as the real competition to the Brits is the Aussies with the 1000+mph "car" Aussie Invader

I'd plead for people to do *any* research on a story, but this is /. (and kdawson btw what is a "reaer", as mentioned in the summary. Is spell check too fucking hard now?)