The Bloodhound LSR crew reached a big milestone yesterday afternoon as driver Andy Green piloted the land-bound missile to 501mph along the Hakskeenpan desert in South Africa.
This was the 29th test run the team has completed since mid-October and while it achieved the fastest terminal speed so far, it was not totally without incident.
Issues like the center screen freezing above 350mph, the right brake temperature indicator showing a max reading throughout and a gust of wind causing the car to yaw at peak speed are all in a day’s work for the ice-cool Andy Green.
Even the fire warning in the engine bay was no big deal (happily there was no fire) and Green and the team were very pleased with the overall performance of the Bloodhound. There are still some days left before this round of testing comes to a close and with plenty more on offer from the EJ200 jet engine and some more miles of unused track left we may see the Bloodhound LSR eclipse its current top speed before long.
This particular run also tested the modified first-stage brake chute (now more stable) as well as deployment of the secondary chute (slightly less stable), adding to the wealth of data that the team needs to keep pushing on towards the Thrust SSC’s 763mph world land speed record and then on to the 1000mph top speed it has been ultimately been designed to achieve.
For now though, the 501mph marker is a big step towards that goal and a major achievement for the Bloodhound LSR team.
Images courtesy of Bloodhound LSR
