Wednesday 4th January 2012

Back-yard speed record attempt aims for 2,000mph

Californian engineer reckons he can double Bloodhound SSC's 1,000mph ambitions

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If your New Year's resolutions amount to nothing more ambitious than a half-hearted attempt to cut down on the booze, then perhaps you should look to Californian Waldo Stakes, whose Sonic Wind project aims to break the 2,000mph barrier. We kid you not.

And the quite astonishing thing about the project is that, unlike the British Bloodhound SSC project, which has soaked up millions of pounds and is being created by a dedicated team of engineers and other brainy types, Sonic Wind is a one-man operation.

Super-fast X-15 provides motive power...

One man who, for the record, quit formal education at the age of 19 and whose workshop does not even contain a computer.

Now, it would be easy to dismiss Stakes as a crackpot with a snowball's chance in hell of getting his project off the ground. But that would be a cheap shot, and does not take into account two things: one, he already has speed-record form with both bikes and cars and two, he happens to own a pair of XLR99 rocket engines.

These were developed for NASA's X-15 experimental plane, which still holds the fastest speed ever reached by a manned rocket-powered aircraft (4,519mph). In addition to the 57,000lb-thrust rocket (which out-thrusts Bloodhound by a good 10,000lb), Stakes also owns a pair of fuel tanks from a Redstone rocket.

...to take on British Bloodhound project

It's a good basis, sure, but unfortunately that, along with a heap of designs and a 1.2-metre model, is really all that so far exists of what will hopefully become a 15-metre seven-wheel monster.

Mr Stakes, we salute your passion for speed.

If you want to find out more details of Waldo Stakes's mad venture, head on over to Popular Mechanics

[Milks]

He probably ought to do a little reading on air resistance and friction before he starts