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Record-Seeking Bloodhound SSC Goes Partially Open Source

Posted by timothy on from the alert-homer-simpson dept.

jd writes "I've been monitoring the progress of Bloodhound SSC (the car aiming for the 1,000 MPH record) and it looks like they're opting for some interesting tactics. In April, the car itself went partially open source, with a complete set of schematics and specifications and an invite for engineering bugfixes. According to them, it's the first time a racing team has done this. Sounds likely enough. The latest patches to be released were a tripling in fin size and a switch to steel brakes because carbon fibre would explode."

7 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Re:what is a "car"? by Tonyd0311 · · Score: 2

    Exactly! They should stop calling it a car once they have to strap a jet engine to the back of it, that is until I see cars with jet engines driving down the highway while I am driving to work.

  2. I just dont get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't really get this "Open Source" thing. Could somebody help explain with a car analogy? That usually helps.

    1. Re:I just dont get it by Noughmad · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, the car is jet-powered. As you may know, jet engines require large amount of air to operate, that's why they work better at higher speeds, and don't work at all outside the atmosphere.

      To get this large amount of air into the engine, you need to keep the front side of the engine open. It's not hard to imagine that the more open the front side is, the more air will get in, and the more efficient the engine will be.

      So, for years, engineers (you know, people who build engines) have tried to build jet engines to be as open as possible. Traditionally, this was only limited to the literal sense of the word "open". However, in recent years, when the word "literally" also begun to mean "not literally", they started exploring other, less literal ways to make the engines more open. So when jet engine engineers heard talk about Open Source, they thought it's about making the air source more open. And here we are now, with jet-engine-builders trying to get more into their engines by using open source.

      --
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  3. Define "open source"... by starseeker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "All data provided by BLOODHOUND Programme Limited is proprietary to BLOODHOUND Programme Limited. All such data shall only be used for the purposes of education and shall not be used by any party for commercial gain."

    The files are AVAILABLE, but that doesn't make them open source. There's an important distinction. Unless I'm missing it, they don't have any standard license (Creative Commons or otherwise) attached to it right now and they don't sound like they're going to encourage people to use this data as a basis for their own projects. If you can't "fork" the car design and work on your own car it's a bit tough to call it open source.

    That said, this does look pretty cool and the educational aspects of it are legit enough (also would make a good set of test files for any open source project planning to support that JT file format.)

    --
    "I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
  4. Re:1,000 MPH?....! by MachDelta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Supersonic cars might not seem practical, but they do pose some important questions about supersonic aerodynamics at ground level (shock front + ground effect = sudden lift) and materials science (wheels, brakes, etc). These are questions we don't really have solid answers to yet, and one day they may prove useful in something more practical, like maybe a supersonic bullet train.
    Mostly though, this is just one of those "where no man has gone before" things that people love to do. Ultimately, it's the same rational behind "first post!"

  5. Re:what is a "car"? by Muros · · Score: 3, Informative

    No they shouldn't. "Car" is an abbrieviated form of the word carriage, which is a wheeled transport device. The power source for motion is not a part of that definition, and I would argue that the difference between a jet engine and a standard modern petrol or diesel combustion engine is smaller than the difference between either of those normal modern engines and a horse.

  6. No fly-by-wire? by iteyoidar · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From the car's website:

    "How about automated steering, or some kind of ‘fly-by-wire’ computer stabilisation? No – the rules do not allow it, and quite right too in my opinion. In order to be a land vehicle in LSR terms, the FIA rules require that the vehicle is ‘wholly and continuously controlled by the driver’. Even if the rules did allow for a computer system, should we really be running a car that needs a computer (which will be untested in this prototype vehicle) to keep it safe?"

    Kind of crazy that a team developing an open-source supersonic car is afraid of using computer control assistance methods that have been around for decades!