The Future, Like the Past, Has Us Looking for Speed

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As one part of me is a speed freak and the other is a technology aficionado you can probably understand why I’m so chuffed about the news of people wanting more speed. In particular, it’s the British who are interested and who are building the… vehicle… which will help them achieve it.

The vehicle in question is called the Bloodhound SSC and the aim for it is reaching a target speed of 1.000 mph or just over 1.600 km/h. If you’re the sort of chap who’s an airplane enthusiast you might call this sort of speed as being somewhere around Mach 1.5.

Yes folks, the Bloodhound SSC is going to be just that fast. In fact, that means that the Bloodhound SSC can run along the ground at a top speed which is actually rated as supersonic. To put that into perspective, none of the commercial jet airliners can fly supersonic.

Actually, most commercial jets can’t keep up with the Thrust SSC, the current land speed record holder, which was the first to break through the sound barrier. Since the Bloodhound is that much faster than the Trust, you can imagine the difference it will make.

Even so, it will be a while before the Bloodhound SSC will aim for the land speed record. That’s because while it may be capable of doing 1000 mph, it only exists in theory so far. The last three years of the Bloodhound’s existence have been kept in check by the design process.

Today however, things changed, the British have finally sent it into “production”. The ultimate speed freak mobile will be built in sections by various enterprises such as British Aerospace and the British Ministry of Defense.

The latter supplied the two EuroFighter Typhoon engines and the guys at Aerospace are going to be responsible for building most of the frame on the record breaker.

The thing is, even though the design is complete, we’re told relatively little about the Bloodhound SSC. What we know is that power will have EuroFighter Typhoon written on part of it, and there’ll also be an additional rocket power.

The person selected to take the Bloodhound up to its top speed will be the current land speed record holder, wing commander Andy Green.