Thrust SSC: Breaking the Sound Barrier... In a Car
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
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I's LOVE to see a video on Richard Noble's attempt to beat 1,000mph. He hasn't done it yet, but my daughter has her name on the tail someone who has worked on the calculations during a STEM lesson at school!!
Proud daddy like I am
Theres a video "It's rocket science! With professor chris bishop.
7.45 into the video a jet engine the size of a coke can produces 20 kilo watts of thrust. Its powerful and helps you understand how scary it must be in that cockpit due to the amount its scaled up.
It's got nothing to do with Richard Noble anymore.
@@Darkstar..... But we need 1.21 gigawatts.
That’s rad brother! Tell that girl, to get it!!!
Bloodhound definitely seems like a good video. Would love to hear more about it!
Definitely 👍
Unfortunately the project is currently stalled. Noble sold the project to Ian warhurst, who offered it for sale in 2021. The car is also in Coventry transport museum, the future of the project is unclear.
@George U Here's a link to a Chris Harris (Top Gear Presenter/Auto Journalist) on the Bloodhound, and one by Top Gear as Well:
Chris Harris on Cars Bloodhound SSC: ruclips.net/video/g4AyytkpiB0/видео.html
Top Gear "How to Drive at 628mph" (Bloodhound SSC): ruclips.net/video/mJM85Kb7kz0/видео.html
Bloodhound needs to run again!!! They did some trail runs up to 1010km/h. The one worker got a goat and called it ten-ten
Being the nephew of Richard Noble I am incredibly grateful for you making a video on this and increasing the awareness of what a huge achievement this is (Still not been broken in 25 years). Being an inspiration to me as he continues with bonkers record breaking projects on into his 70s, I will shamlessly promote his book "Take Risk" for anyone interested in these types of projects as he has attempted many (not all successful). Big fan of all your channels Simon, especially the one that Blazes hard. If anyone has any questions I'll try my best to answer them.
Good lad! - Respects to your uncle and British hero.
Another good one is "Record Breakers" by Leo Villa. All about the Campbells.
@@garyflatman3263 You're very kind, thank you
@@TestingPyros Will have to give it a read. I know Richard was massively inspired by the Campbells having seen one run on one of the lochs.
he is a true british legend . bring on the bloodhound
Funfact: as a safety measure, they installed a rocket engine from a fighter jet eject seat near the nose of the SSC. In case the car lifted off the ground, the rockets would deploy and generate enough downforce to save the vehicle and it's driver from a fatal crash.
It's under the square panel with stripped black and yellow tape, visible at 14:08.
Neat.
I know it's not going to launch the pilot high enough to get a safe chute opening, but I wouldn't mind having the option to eject. I'm not going to assume that it will save me, but it will be over a hell of a lot quicker than would staying strapped in for surprise disassembly.
@@Nipplator99999999999 you would be knocked unconscious as soon as it tumbled
@@Nipplator99999999999 Actually modern fighter jet ejection systems are designed to be able to eject at zero altitude and zero speed. Think the bigger issue would be the reaction time required to safely eject from the craft as the driver would have to do so before the vehicle started flipping. TBH I think a better solution would be to create an air bag system around the cockpit section, similar to that used for landing rovers on Mars, allowing that section of the vehicle to bounce/roll along the ground till eventually coming to a stop.
@@scottthewaterwarrior if they are able to get a retro system to fire before it lifted up enough to lose control, it seems like it could be adapted to eject the pilot safely, with minimal alterations to parameters.
For anyone that wants to see this car in person, the Coventry Transport Museum is its home. It's a great day out, i'd recommend anyone to go and see this car, and many other iconic vehicles at the museum.
As my Gran used to say “he won’t get there any faster, and there’s nowhere to put the shopping”. 😃
The amazing thing about ThrustSSC is that despite huge advances in materials science, fly-by-wire control systems, and computational fluid dynamics the record set by Green has stood for nearly a quarter of a century.
That's interesting..
Do you happen to know if that is because of an inability to do so, or for a lack of trying?
@@cjperry2731 Couldn't tell you to be honest. But my guess would be that nobody wants to just beat it by a little bit, they want to be "first to 1000mph". Which is quite a monumental step up from 800, both technologically and cost-wise.
...Which could be why it's taken so long for anyone to challenge the record (but yeah, I'd just be guessing).
@@DEADB33F yeah that makes sense..
@@cjperry2731 They're working on it though.
From what I remember from the top of my head, Bloodhound has gone just under SSC's speed, but as James said there's big difference between the two. Andy Green is still the driver/pilot, hugely invested in the project both financially and personally... I expect he'll beat his old record within the next decade.
@@cjperry2731 It's not so much that it can't be done but more that it's extremely, unreasonably, unfathomably expensive to do and I guess most people don't see that as being worthwhile... I mean anyone hearing about it thinks it's awesome, but would you put up a few hundred million dollars to fund it with no guarantee of success?
I saw this car make quite a few runs when it was at the Black Rock Desert, including the first supersonic run
Even the fasted jet aircraft can barely get over Mach 1.1 at sea level; max speeds are at altitude where the air gets thinner to not pose so much resistance. An F-14A for example could get well over Mach 2 at 40k feet but couldn’t hit Mach 1 at 50’ above sea level at full afterburner. Going supersonic on the ground under jet power is tough and expensive.
Life's a literal drag under sea level. Although your top-speed to go MACH drops nicely.
It helps that the Black Rock Desert is at an elevation of 3,907 ft (1,191 m) above sea level, and also that the air is absolutely bone dry.
This is absolutely not true. The Tomcat easily exceeded Mach 1 at sea level. It always amazes me people just talk nonsense and people believe it. The F-4, F-14, F-15, F-16 and the F-18 can all easily exceed the sound barrier at sea level. Saying the F-14 couldn’t do it at sea level in full AB is completely false.
@@TheHannukahZombie: That simply isn’t true. I said the F-14A couldn’t which is absolutely true with the underpowered engines of the A model it could not; the F-14B could however achieve supersonic speed at sea level. The F-14A was so underpowered they needed afterburner to take off; the F-14B could take off at mil-power. As for the others I can’t speak to specifically other than the F-15 specs, which can very by model as well are around Max speeds of only Mach 1.12 at sea level through/past 2.5 at 42k feet. Speed and sea level is a heck of a thing with even the U-2 nearly grind Mach capable at 70k feet with a very narrow stall to over speed window, which along with its high ground lift and having to fly it in a pressure suit contribute to its still exclusive pilots club.
Just because a jet can achieve supersonic speeds doesn’t mean it can achieve said speed at any altitude, much like top speed for rotary wing aircraft varies greatly depending on their altitude, much like their lifting capability varies by altitude. Air gets thinner as you get higher which both limits lift of rotary wing aircraft and reduces air resistance making supersonic speeds much easier to achieve.
As a side note while I couldn’t say for sure I’d imagine due to both the F-16 and F-18 low top speeds relative to the F-14 and F-15 Mach 2+, I would imagine both smaller aircraft would have issues either hitting or maintaining Mach speeds at low altitude, especially the F-16 which while being a beautifully maneuverable aircraft when clean can burn a massive amount of fuel and like the F-14A need afterburner just to get off the ground; anything that needs afterburner to take off simply isn’t going to have the trust to push past the drag at sea level to achieve supersonic speeds.
And needs a lot of power. Simon said that the power output of Thrust SSC was equivalent to a thousand family cars, but I think it sounds more impressive when you realise that this single small car has as much propulsive power as a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier--a 65,000 tonne ship!
If Simon doesn’t use the Friday time slot for an April Fools day video about his billions of channels I’ll be disappointed
Edit: *My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined*
Lol, indeed..
I imagine it as researchers approaching him
a mega project on Simons channels 😂
You mean there isn't one I am subscribed to?
Doing a video on the water speed record would be pretty interesting too. It’s arguably the most deadly world record to ever attempt, but with the utmost respect to those who died it’s seen some pretty awesome innovation
That would be a great vid, and the water speed record has stood for over 40 years at about 320mph.
I think its one of those records where the tech exists to beat it......but finding someone willing pilot the thing is a very different matter.
@@tommy5675 I thought they solved the water speed record safety issues with tempered fighter jet glass cockpits? Back in the 1970s. But maybe that was only the first step.
@@raylopez99 I don't think the cockpit was an issue for record attempts as Donald Campbell was around the 250-300mph mark in the 50s and 60s
I think the issue is with the inherently uneven surface of water and the fact that debris can float into the speed lane and there can also be debris that sits just under the water unseen.
The aerodynamics needed to punch a hole through the air for record speeds lend themselves towards flight.
With the unpredictable nature of the surface of water and a "Boat" that has the aero to fly, a little ripple is enough to send you airborne.
That's one of the theories that happened to Campbell and his Blue Bird in 1966 and he was about the 320mph mark when that happened on Coniston Water,which is about a still and even as you can get a body of water.
Anybody who attempts the record is going to need massive balls.......or zero comprehension of what could very easily go wrong :)
@@tommy5675 and the funny thing is, most of the men to break the record are Aussie, so it fills me with joy knowing that so far, Australians are the only people willing to do something so dangerous. I always knew we were stupid
@@tommy5675 A TV special on speedboating contradicts you on the glass issue, and they claimed the fighter jet cockpit saved the sport. They may have been simplifying for a TV audience. They did mention that even a tiny wave can catapult a speed boat, but they said at least the pilot would live with the new safety glass. Not my sport but like mountain climbing, anybody who participates in that sport has to be both an adrenaline junkie and have a death wish.
Growing up in Coventry and seeing the Thrust on many occasions at the museum, it's awesome to see this vid about it.
I live in Coventry so took my lad & some friends again recently, Coventry Transport Museum is always well worth a visit 😎
Bloody brilliant, was blown away when they broke the record all those years ago. Would really like to see something on the Bloodhound project. Please, please, please
This was a fantastic and thrilling project to follow at the time. I'm proud to say that I contributed some cash to the endeavour, in advance of their record attempt. I still have the polo shirt, and happened to be wearing it when I later met Noble at the Goodwood Festival of Speed :-)
100,000hp is about what a decent sized warship has to do 30+knots. It's an awful lot of power. Keeping it even vaguely under control was an epic design, build and driving achievement.
There were some very strange things going on under that car at Mach1.0. If I remember correctly, the two front wheels weren't spinning at the same RPM, neither wheel's RPM matched the car's speed across the ground, and one of them left a deeper trench than the other. Either side and underneath the car the desert floor was being torn up by the shockwave; it was a Mach1 plough... And, they needed far more power than had been predicted to crack M1.0. All in all, it was like the car transformed the desert floor into a fluidised layer of dried up mud, and the wheels were flying through it at negative altitude.
I like the respect the team showed with the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes on the nose of the car 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Yep it would be great to see an episode on Bloodhound.
Thanks for another excellent episode Mega Team.
The reason it took so long to break the sound barrier was due to Andy Greene's stones were so heavy. The engineers forget to take into account the extra weight. Once factored in, the got through the sound barrier no problem.
1:30 - Chapter 1 - Land speed record
2:50 - Chapter 2 - Design
6:00 - Chapter 3 - Foraging for parts
7:00 - Mid roll ads
8:45 - Chapter 4 - Steering the beast
10:30 - Chapter 5 - The driver
10:55 - Chapter 6 - Testing in Jordan
16:45 - Chapter 7 - Black Rock
21:35 - Chapter 8 - Boom
24:00 - Chapter 9 - Legacy
8:52 "Because of the weight, the car would weigh 10.5 tons." WHOA! weight makes things weigh more? Haha I'm just busting your chops. I hate it when I make errors like this.
I live in Farnborough where they used to test the Trust SSC down Farnborough airport’s runway. I remember back when I was a school many years ago you could actually hear the roar of it’s engines as it did test runs down the runway
I remember seeing Thrust2 on the tv loads when i was a kid, i was 8 when they did this and seeing it again now is a special feeling, all these mega projects are awesome to see but this one is like seeing an old friend again, an important memory from my childhood.
I had the privilege of meeting Richard Noble after he’d achieved the LSR with Thrust 2. He had started a light aviation company which used an inverted 750cc 3 cylinder water cooled engine manufactured by a company in Maidenhead where I worked as a senior inspector. The engine was tested in the normal upright attitude and performed faultlessly. In flight the engine would develop a misfire. The engine was inspected, the spark plugs removed and checked with no issues found. The engine was restarted and ran perfectly until sometime later it developed the misfire again! It turned out that the crankshaft had phosphor bronze thrust washers which were wearing very slightly producing minuscule shavings which then were drawn into the combustion chamber, remember this was a crankcase scavenged 2 Stoke and the shavings then came to rest on the spark plug electrodes causing a misfire! When the engine was in the aircraft on removal of the spark plugs the tiny shavings fell out, unobserved ! It was finally diagnosed when an engine which had been run on the test stand was very carefully stripped and inspected and the issue finally found. Unfortunately by that time all faith in the aircraft had evaporated taking sales with it and the company folded, a sad end. Richard was a lovely guy a real gentleman taking time to talk to me a shop floor worker. Great guy
Awesome video as always!
A great follow-up video would be how Stan Barrett was robbed of breaking the sound barrier in the Budweiser rocket car reaching I believe 739.666 MPH in 1979. Or even the history following the Blue Flame.
Stan Barrett wasn't "robbed" of anything. He didn't break the sound barrier in the Budweiser Rocket. No sonic boom was heard, and the team has never released the results for independent verification.
So no, Barrett is just a brave, but very, very bitter man who thinks he is owed more than he deserves.
Breedlove's car was NOT the "Sonic 1" - which was his 1965 car. It was The Spirit of America Formula Shell LSRV.
And he kept showing Steve Fossett's car. Ridiculous.
I built part of the loom for this beast as a temp wirer with Pi Technology in Cambridge.. The full-timers didn't like the fact that a temp was doing this prestige job, but my work was always better than theirs, to the point where the test engineer, just to really piss the regulars off, nicknamed me 'sure-shot'... I watched this project with great interest after that, and can testify that my loom wasn't a cause of any of the problems. Phew!
Mind you, the connectors were all military grade, and I belt and braced the whole thing as much as I could.
If i remember correctly, the pumps to supply the fuel were actually JCB engines, yes, the earthmoving construction-tractor company. A real 'raid the parts bin' project. What a team, and what an acheivement, I'd love to see a price comparison between the US and UK efforts, I know which was cheaper, eg I was on £7/hr...
I remember following their efforts on their web page. Their small, ugly, low resolution, web 1.0 page. Still, it was as state of the art as the project itself, and a thrill to see updates of every test run that couldn't have been reported any other way. Chills.
I was doing my industrial placement year for my degree at the Farnborough airbase for D.E.R.A (Defence Evaluation & Research Agency, the then UK version of DARPA or DoD in the US), while the car was built onsite. The car was largely built on by DERA engineers who took holiday from their day jobs to work on the project. We would regularly see practise runs down the runway at Farnborough and unfortunately saw more than a couple of engines blow up. I was lucky enough to get a tour round the hanger and to say hello to the team and get up close and personal with the car while there.
I actually saw Andy Green practising with the Franken-mini which had it's arse end cut off and a massive A frame to the two steering wheels at the back. The mini had no steering wheel either. To replicate the actual car it had a handle bar with a straight rod connection back to the wheels. Very weird to see.
My old boss actually told me that money got so tight on the project, that one day Richard Nobel was called into the head of DERA to discuss material and computing/human time that had been supplied by DERA (remember this is UK tax payers money). Apparently, Richard sat in the office and offered a cheque for £600 which was all he had in the coffers at the time. The costs were absorbed into official projects and Thrust SSC continued on.
I watched a documentary about this over 20 years ago covering both the parallel US attempt and British attempt. What surprised me was that usually anything the Americans do is on a huge scale with a huge budget and and a huge car and lots of people. On this occasion the American car was quite small compared to the British car, which was huge but on a very tight budget. No idea of the Americans budget but it seemed a reversal of what we come to expect.🇦🇺
It's because Breedlove was pretty much financing it himself. He was on a tight budget.
After watching that documentary, ive noticed where the megaprojects crew got their script from… he says thing word for word copied from that…
man watching Land Speed as a kid and seeing this insane vehicle break the barrier was amazing
So keen for the new cars to make their runs, hopefully soon
I was fortunate enough to have lunch with Andy Green & Richard Noble when they visited BAR F1. Wonderful gentlemen, Andy is a fantastic bloke. I still watch the video of Thrust SSC & it still amazes me! Chatting with Mr Noble, and Andy Green was just wonderful. Great people. I also sponsored the car (a tiny amount, all a single working bloke could do. But many people did the same & it happened), and supplied some parts for it thanks to Cosworth. Amazing memories
Simon. I would love to see a video about Soviet/ Russian military command and control facilities. Do they have the equivalent of a Cheyenne Mountain? Also a video about the Chinese navy's aircraft carrier evolution would be interesting. Thanks. Love your content.
I remember my dad talking about Breedlove breaking 600mph. I was about 5 years old. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was excited. I caught up later.
Please do Bloodhound!
It was the first time I ever sent money (for gas) through the internet. We followed from work, even thought about going up to help with FOD but he pleaded for money so we pooled together and sent it.
He JUST made it.
I saw pictures of some if the panels when it was back in England and they were in terrible condition. I rather suspect that rivets don’t hold up so they will probably weld the panels on the 1000 mph vehicle.
There probably won’t be any panels it’s most likely a carbonfibre mono body with no seams that can fail
@@francisorr2189 the odd thing about these English attacks on speed records is that they are ALWAYS short of money. Additionally carbon fiber is expensive and aluminum is cheap and generally weight is not an issue. So unless the carbon fiber industry makes a huge contribution, they will continue to use aluminum. 😊
I LOVE this car. I don't remember seeing the footage of it, but remember hearing about it and just.... my tiny brain couldn't get around that number!
I wouldn't do Bloodhound just yet, wait until it achieves it's goal, but for anyone interested there is one you could watch. Andy green did a walkaround of the car with Top Gear a few years ago. It goes for about 40mins but its absolutely riveting, Andy Green certainly knows his stuff and is SOO passionate about it.
Thrust 2 is the most gorgeous looking thing ever
Agreed
My favourite fact about its successor is that it uses a 550hp Jaguar V8 as a fuel pump. It is so thirsty, it needs 550hp to keep up.
That was the original plan (well, the original plan was actually an F1-derived power plant), it now uses an electric motor as the power for the pump system.
@@Pugjamin I didn't know they went for an electric version. It's been a long time since I read up on the project.
Gotta love it when curiosity leads to projects like this. "I want to break the sound barrier in a car." "What? Whatever for?" "To see if it's possible." "Good enough for me!"
I love that this was a British breakthrough, late in automotive history yet an absolute that could never be repeated, answering the question: "Is it even possible to travel faster than sound on land?" Why yes it was. BOOM. And as Green said on the day seconds after making it: "Everything's going to be wonderful."
I appreciate you taking the time to do this first video which was fascinating I would like to see a bloodhound video because they’re trying to go even faster which is crazy Thanks for paying a picture of how they did it next bloodhound
Love to see another on Bloodhound and also Aussie Invader, a rocket powered 200,000 odd HP monster that's a contender for the 1000MPH record
I've had the prividledge of seeing the Thrust SSC in person and am an avid follower and donator to the new Bloodhound SSC which I've seen in person at their UK base of operations in Avonmouth, Bristol where the car currently resides. Both are absolute wonders to behold!
Also had the honour of meeting Andy Green and had a brief chat with Richard Noble at one of their members/donor only open days. Cutting-edge technology and a true testament to man's determination for speed. Good luck to these British Land Speed Legends!
This makes me immensely proud to be British. Cheers for this Simon & Team.
I remember of this famous photo where you can see the car from above and it's followed by a bright shockwave. Truly amazing...
this is awesome, as a gear head and metal head, mechanics, metal working and going fast are three things near and dear to my black overthinking heart
I'm dying to know what your workflow looks like because holy cow ya'll are freakin' productive
Being a gearhead I remember when this was being done and the news media coverage of it at the time.
I worked for a company that manufactured brakes for trains in 91-94. Had a job come through manufacturing brake rotors and notice on the drawing thrust ssc. Wasn’t until I saw the vehicle on a news article before I realised what the brake rotors were made for.
You know damn well that I’d want to see an episode about the Bloodhound LSR.
YESSSS SPEEEED , another video i never knew i needed. saw this as a kid blew my mind thanks for these great videos
the British spirit, jolly good show!
I was lucky enough to see the car at several stages during design and construction , And attended many of the design lectures held . It was an eye opener walking through the engine bays and actually being allowed and encouraged to poke about and ask questions or make suggestions .
I've been waiting for this video since forever! I remember as a kid seeing its development on the tv show 'tomorrows world' on numerous occasions. Going from the drawing board to completed car, seeing its test runs on runways in the uk and then on out to the high speed desert runs. I get goosebumps whenever i see footage of it screaming across the desert. What a project to be a part of! What a legacy.
And done by the British. One of the few remaining things that we lead the world in and with bloodhound ssc, hopefully will continue to do so.
I'd love to see videos of more historical land speed cars, thrust 2, Bluebird, Golden arrow, Blue Flame to name a few.
Great job mega project team!
1000mph?? Somebody better reinvent the wheel.
When I heard on the news that a land vehicle had broken the sound barrier I first thought it was the American team as I had seen something on the back page of a newspaper about them. When I heard it was a British team I thought "Oh Dam" but then I thought "good for them". I hope they got the recognition they deserved back in England.
16 companies in Coventry made parts for the car and supported it hence why it adorns the cities name in blue on its side and it first visited Coventry upon its return after setting the record. I was stood there the day it arrived in Broadgate in Coventry City centre :)
So cool! Definitely want to hear about Bloodhound!
The engines for this insane vehicle were tested at a location not far from me. I've also had the luck to have stood close enough to Thrust SSC to touch the thing, as it was on display at our local airshow many moons ago. When I was a youngster, this this blew my mind. Still does now that I am no longer a youngster!
A video on the Bloodhound would be most welcome. I've been following the project for a few years now and it seems to be having even more struggles than the SSC.
The biggest eye opener originally for me was the fact that the Bloodhound was utilising a Jaguar Land Rover 4.2 V8 supercharged engine....
.... as a fuel pump for the jet engine!
THAT is the level of insanity required!
This was really cool to see. I remember this back in the early 90's when I was at primary school.
If you are going to do a video on Bloodhound SSC you should also cover Aussie Invader R as thats its direct competition.
The only difference is Aussie Invader R has next to no budget. An Bloodhound SSC was highly funded by the British government.
Amazing, so proud! Please do the Bloodhound, have followed the project for years now and my name will be on the tail when it runs! Can't wait for new records to be smashed by this amazing team!
I would love a video about the Bloodhound. Maybe one on the race to build faster and faster production cars, such as the Bugatti Veyron, the Tutara, and Shelby Aeromax
You've got to do a video on Bloodhound now, the whole idea of going that fast on land is absolutely mad and I love it!
I still have a model of SSC from one of the tours before they broke the record to raise money, Signed by Nobel and Green. Met them both again a few years ago for Bloodhound, still hope it gets to run
Fantastic story. Props to all men and women involved.
Simon is an excellent story teller. Always a good event hearing you.
A while back I remember a story about a underwater drone that a team was building. All the money was spent and none was left however they needed something to absorb any leaks inside the drone in case there was one. One of the engineers noticed the bread from his sandwich consistently stuck to his mouth and that was where the idea of buying a large amount of bread stuffed it in because it did not conduct electricity.
Am I the only one, who allways thinks that Backblaze is something like beardblaze, just for hairy backs.
I was lucky enough to go to Bloodhounds Cornwall Airport 200mph shakedown a few years back and the car damn near stunned the crowd to silence after a few seconds of re-heat.
The numbers behind the car are staggering. Faster at sea level than the aircraft it borrowed its engine from, more powerful than the entire Red Arrows display team combined and once the Nammo rocket motor is lit at 650mph, short of a badly timed volcanic eruption, it would have been the fastest, loudest and most powerful object on the surface of the Earth.
Watch any interview with Andy Green when he's talking about the cars power potential as he goes from super serious and matter-of-fact to schoolboy levels of excitement. When the literal fastest man on Earth, a fighter pilot that did a transonic powerslide across the desert, is getting giddy talking about acceleration and horsepower when going into 4 digit groundspeeds, you know you've got a vehicle with some shunt behind it.
So much shunt that on the last run with only 60% of the finished cars total thrust output, Green shut the turbines down at 600mph and the car gave him another 28mph during the wind down. Making it by accident almost the 3rd fastest car ever.
There is possibly no more a passion project in progress right now in the world. Bloodhound has no reason to exist. At all.
Richard Noble holds not just the current, but also the previous Land Speed Record. Andy Green *is* the fastest man on the planet, and there is nothing out there even close. There is so little competition, the entire build is open source and inquiry is actively encouraged.
It exists, not because it must, but simply because it can. It is art with a shockwave. To become the new benchmark for what can be done and drag the next generation away from 'influencing' and into making things (2 million people have contributed in some way in the design of the car).
It's the most Brit-in-a-shed build in modern times. Cutting edge on a shoe string. 3D printed titanium steering wheel with Black and Decker powertool switches, a zero emissions rocket motor on a car with a drinks bottle as a coolant expansion extension. It's the 21st Century Concorde, a Rolls Royce powered supersonic white dart with a Union Jack livery, a 160,000bhp fuck you to tertiary industry, instagrammers and politics.
Do the Bloodhound video.
I have a certificate around here somewhere signed by the team for helping them buy fuel to get the car here to the US for it's runs. I was proud to have small 'bit' in the success.
very inspiring guys. great episode!
Absolutely, you should look into Bloodhound. That one is equally fun to learn about.
Amazing video! I have been following the bloodhound project since I was young and I feel like what Thrust SSC did is extremely underrated so I’m glad you made this video so more people know about it. I hope they can reach 1000mph with bloodhound, that would be remarkable. I have been lucky enough to meet both Andy Green and Richard Noble on multiple occasions and they’re both really great people.
This engineering feat was achieved 3 DECADES ago, let that sink in 🤯 Kudos to Mr. Noble.
I've seen Thrust 2, the fastest wheel-driven car Bluebird, and the fastest piston engined car which I can't remember the name of. They're all beautiful machines, in their way. They were all at Britain's National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, but I guess Thrust 2 may have been on loan. It had pride of place, at least; you could see it from half the museum. The first time I went there, Bluebird had that spot.
Would love a video on Bloodhound. I've been following it closely for years now.
Thank you Simon for having such a craving for academic history presented the way the best documentaries do (as far as a 90s kid is concerned. These have gotten me through good and hard times and broadened my frontier as a history student. Thank you so much
Story that warms my cold frozen heart... thanks
I was in the Coventry museum in the 90's and saw Thrust 2 twice! Only reason i couldn't see the SSC was because it was out there, doing it's runs. Someday, i must return.
What a fascinating video! I'd love to see one on the attempt to go faster than 1,000mph! Well done Simon and team 😊 👏 ❤
I'm sloooowwwlyyy working my way toward subscribing to all of your channels so I can binge. For starters I'm fresh out of content to binge on all of my favorite channels. And on top of that I like the spice of variety. Let the binging begin anew! 😉
Wonderful video I worked on the spay at school it's a sweet engine
Thrust SSC has some emergency rockets to push the nose into the ground if it was ever to start to flip. The rockets used for this where rockets out of an ejector seat. When the team when to the company that made them the company was under the impression the wanted an ejector seat and refused and told the team it was too dangerous to use on a land vehicle. Andy Green replied that that was fine as he had no plans on leaving the vehicle .
This certainly gives new meaning to the expression, _"a quickie."_
😊😊😊
I remember following this story. It was everywhere once the did it.
I'm not a car enthusiast, but that was a really incredible story.
You don't have to be a car enthusiast to appreciate this particular subject matter. ThrustSSC isn't actually a car. It's essentially a jet without wings.
Yes please Simon, a video on the Bloodhound project. Very interested 👌
Great video! And may I add… I’m so happy you made it off the ‘Guess Who?’ board.
You should do a video here or on side projects of the b-36 peacemaker it was a buffer between the b-29 and the b-52 it mixed piston and jet propulsion and would be an awesome video
That’s one of my all-time favourite aircraft. There’s an excellent book about it called ‘Magnesium Overcast’.
1 of Britain's many achievements! 🇬🇧
Yes Bloodhound! - please!
(Applause, whistling, clapping)
👏👏👏
Fascinating project.
With all the seemingly counter-intuitive things this "car" had to achieve (an aircraft that won't take off, a steering system that made it go straight...), chips shaking themselves loose in the computer on board were not one of the problems that I would have ever thought of 😅
What they managed to accomplish, failures aside, is still quite extraordinary when you consider that the average smartphone has more processing power than they had available when they achieved the record. Just image what they could have done, had they had a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra on hand.....
I would love to see one about Bloodhound, although from what I recall (this is a couple of years old though) there is a chance it may never run simply down to money to finish the project off - but then again it gives scope for 2 videos out of 1 vehicle
Fun fact: before commencing any operation involving aircraft on a ship, the flight crew does what's called a "FODwalk" where they walk the entire flight deck to look for foreign objects and debris.
Great story, wonderfully told! Bloodhound? Yes, please!
Please do a video on the bloodhound
Yes, please make that video. I was into these cars as a kid, obsessed with who held the record at the time. Oh god, if I'm remembering these events first hand I'm old. hahahaa
In the United States a three wheel placement like that is called a trike which classifies it as a motorcycle ,I don't know if United States recognized the attempt ..but still this is the most impressive land speed record I have ever seen. FOD is Foreign Object and Debris.
Would love to see a video on bloodhound. Amazing video as always
I’ve been waiting for this video