Did they not try a GoFundMe page ?
Bloodhound SSC reaches the end of the road for want of £25m
Bloodhound, a British project to strap a rocket to a car and fling it at the horizon, is officially dead, as administrators finally pulled the plug on the venture. The project entered administration in October and now, alas, it looks as though time has run out to find the remaining cash needed to mount an attempt on the land …
COMMENTS
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Friday 7th December 2018 18:33 GMT Jellied Eel
Re: Someone
I guess politics. So Amazon* delivers! But Amazon's a US company and sponsoring a British team could be seen as un-American. Otherwise, it may put sponsors off as being un-green. It may not even have a single battery on board. Or possibly the risk of failure and fatality puts investors off. A shame though as it was one of those crazy stretch goals that may inspire people.
*Or the Mafia Piza Company..
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Monday 10th December 2018 08:28 GMT Voland's right hand
Re: Someone
Or possibly the risk of failure and fatality
The previous record holder before Thrust SSC, the Blue Flame could break the speed of sound as a design, the driver wanted to break the speed of sound, but was not allowed to break the speed of sound by the sponsors.
Once a the land record was achieved, the Blue Flame was stopped from further racing and ended up travelling around the country as a marketing exhibit for the association of gas suppliers. For this exact reason - in UK or USA nobody wants a fatality to spoil such a wonderful marketing campaign.
So, yeah, not like we have not been there before with the land record.
In any case, the real issue here is that Thrust SSC was limited in its choice of sponsors. Due to the use of Rolls Royce and Ministry of Defence assets it could not ask any of the places where they could get that money in 15 minutes. 25M is a bag of peanuts for the usual "football team and Chelsea mansion" buying suspects. They also would not care about any casualties. The more the merrier - no publicity (except the one that gets you into a USA sanctions list) is a bad publicity.
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Monday 10th December 2018 11:07 GMT caffeine addict
Re: Bu**eration!
I (kinda) see a point in making ever faster wheel driven cars
This. A thousand times, this. The aerodynamics involved in 1000mph is mind bending, but that's about it. Getting an internal combustion engine up to 450mph through powered wheels is (IMO) a massively more impressive feat. The wheels, the drive, the rubber, the challenge of actually getting enough air into the engine? That's much cooler than a jet or rocket on wheels.
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Monday 10th December 2018 11:59 GMT phuzz
Re: Bu**eration!
"why don't they go for full monty and just clip the wings and affix proper wheels to an SR-71 or Saturn V or whatever is available?"
Even aircraft that are quite capable of breaking the speed of sound, don't/can't do it at an altitude of 0m. The increased air density, and the reflection of the shockwaves off the ground would basically destroy a wingless aircraft. Instead all the aerodynamics have to be designed with 1000mph at 0m as a requirement.
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Friday 7th December 2018 19:49 GMT Floydian Slip
Andy Green would not drive the car if he felt his life was at risk. Part of the project has been extensive CFD research and testing and Andy G has a maths degree so not only understands the project but can understand the underlying math too.
This is such a shame. For the likes of Dyson, Branson, Ratliff , the Hinduja bros etc and other billionaire industrialists it's a relatively small sum. Many mega rich musos could have added half a mill each.
So sad, after so much effort
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Friday 7th December 2018 19:52 GMT Martin Summers
"Many mega rich musos could have added half a mill each."
Precisely, this is like pocket change to some few people. It would be a place in history for them as the person that made it happen. Once they're at 1000mph as has been mentioned, I doubt they'll bother trying for more then. Still, it's currently in administration so still time for someone to save them.
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Friday 7th December 2018 20:33 GMT Brian Miller
No passenger seat
How many people get killed in crosswalks, versus high speed runs? I've been on three hoods, nearly under two buses, and I have no idea how many close calls. And a highly engineered speed run is as dangerous or more so as being a pedestrian? Really?
If they had installed a passenger seat, then I'm sure there would have been investors.
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Sunday 9th December 2018 18:24 GMT Evil Auditor
Re: No passenger seat
@Brian Miller
If you did the maths (i.e. risk calculations) correctly, you'd compare the ratios of pedestrians/pedestrians killed with speed run pilots/speed run pilots killed. I don't have the figures but my best guess is that being a pedestrian is less life risky.
Regading your accident records: did you ever consider to watch out for other traffic? (SCNR)
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Monday 10th December 2018 13:11 GMT Jellied Eel
But the right nuts!
1000MPH on the deck is just nuts. I love all the engineering and tech though.
Not sure which is more nuts. Doing 1000mph in an aircraft at low level while people are shooting at you, or doing it on the ground. But that's all part of the tech fun. Flying straight & level @1,000mph is relatively simple.. doing that on the ground safely is a whole different challenge.
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Friday 7th December 2018 18:16 GMT Wibble
Barriers
The sound 'barrier' is a physical barrier to pass through. Thrust SSC did a superb job; well done to them. Nobody can ever take the record away from Andy Green: the first man to break the sound barrier on land (unlike Chuck Yeager who may not have been the first - https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4154).
Always remember the TV film of the Thrust SSC crew being asked "was it worth it" and then hearing the two sonic booms and a cheer.
1000mph is just some arbitrary speed. Admittedly a difficult one to break, but arbitrary all the same. May as well aim for 1000 nautical miles per hour, or 1000 Linguine per nanocentury (apologies for mixing measurement 'standards')
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Monday 10th December 2018 07:46 GMT Gotno iShit Wantno iShit
Re: Barriers
Thrust SSC came very close to killing Mr Green. It was little more than two of the biggest engines Noble could scrounge strapped to something with wheels, there were good reasons as soon as the bangs were heard they packed up and came home rather than push for a bit more.
The amount of design effort in Bloodhound is in another league. It should be capable of breaking the sound barrier in a controlled fashion rather than with fingers firmly crossed. It's worth doing just to prove the aerodynamics of that feat are solved. If anyone is thinking of posting "but but but aircraft break the sound barrier all the time" I strongly suggest you go do some reading instead.
I agree though that once above the sound barrier numbers are pretty arbitrary. Damn shame.
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Friday 7th December 2018 19:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Although £25m sounds a lot, compared to the money put into a few Olympic hopefuls or heaven forefend a money pit like HS2 it is a national shame that the govt. could step in to save this. After all one of the main objectives of the Bloodhound team was to fire up enthusiasm in hi-tech in a potential workforce currently destined for McJobs in the service sector. But then no govt. since the mid 60s has really shown any belief in our tech sector. :-(
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Friday 7th December 2018 20:59 GMT Ian Johnston
After all one of the main objectives of the Bloodhound team was to fire up enthusiasm in hi-tech in a potential workforce currently destined for McJobs in the service sector.
Something which it completely and utterly failed to do, because it was using established technology to achieve a pointless ambition.
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Saturday 8th December 2018 15:55 GMT John Brown (no body)
"After all one of the main objectives of the Bloodhound team was to fire up enthusiasm in hi-tech in a potential workforce currently destined for McJobs in the service sector."
The required £25m is probably less than if the Govt. had tried to do the school visits etc that the Bloodhound team already did. The project probably saved the Govt. more than they now need.
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Friday 7th December 2018 20:48 GMT Ian Johnston
It was always a pointless vanity project. The engineering isn't particularly interesting or groundbreaking (jet engines? meh. hybrid rocket? only slightly less meh.) and the achievement of propelling a retired RAF pilot as cargo in a straight at high speed for a few miles isn't particularly exciting. Good riddance to the bloody thing.
Let's try and excite people with genuinely novel engineering solutions to real problems, not by throwing money at an arbitrary target.
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Friday 7th December 2018 22:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
Let's try and excite people with genuinely novel engineering solutions...
The floor is yours, sir. You've criticised what others have done, let's see you come up with something considerably better. And not just a basic idea, you will presumably be happy to get a good starting percentage delivered as well.
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Friday 7th December 2018 22:30 GMT Justthefacts
Actually, that is a good idea....
I am a believer in grand challenges. All too often, as a generation we aimed at the foothills rather than the stars. Taking into account a bit of over-promise, under-deliver, that delivers poo emojis.But the true dreamers never build anything either.
If there were a more generally recognised Grand Challenge Foundation, dreamers could publically submit the crazy dreams to public vision. And equally crazy engineers might have solutions to turn them into reality. If it also had some sort of voting on the worthwhile things to achieve, maybe governments could fund X-Prizes without the bureaucratic safety-seeking of grants.
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Monday 10th December 2018 13:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Jan 0 - nah, Skylon. Same team, better design (HOTOL was deeply flawed, mainly due to having engines at the back and fuel tanks up front and the ensuing changes in centre of gravity as the tanks emptied during flight making the thing unstable), with a genuinely new type of engine that they have pretty much proven can work to create a doable SSTO with (or be used for supersonic transport planes)
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Friday 7th December 2018 23:08 GMT Tim 37
Even a Typhoon can't do 1000mph at sea level so once you consider that this thing would have had to do that rolling on the dirt it would have been quite a feat. I'm sure at one point there was talk of them changing the wheels between the two runs as the wheels would have been toast after the first. Then when you consider the development budgets of any aircraft that can reach those speeds, I'm surprised the project lasted as long as it did!
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Sunday 9th December 2018 11:43 GMT Anonymous Coward
"The engineering isn't particularly interesting or groundbreaking (jet engines? meh. hybrid rocket? only slightly less meh.)"
The interesting engineering isn't in the propulsion but in keeping the thing stable and controllable at that speed, on the ground and without a track.
It's whether there's any value in doing that that I have to question.
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Friday 7th December 2018 22:08 GMT Chubby Chuckles
National disgrace
THE UK has a long and illustrious history of breaking the land speed record and 1000mph is probably the last big one. Noble broke the sound barrier at BlackRock, has a wonderful track record of getting it done.
Presumably no big corporate sponsors would pony up enough, but you'd think the MoD airforce marketing buffoons would see the value of sponsoring this, and find some dodgy slush fund somewhere to get this done in the national interest. hopefully someone will buy all the kit and resurrect it? I really hope so.
Good post on Scarf & Goggles https://scarfandgoggles.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/welcome-back-to-the-1930s/