RE: Axe finally falls on Bloodhound SSC project
Discussion
chunder27 said:
Breedlove in fact bought a rocket motor, and was considering it, until the fuel costs got insane, Blue Flame was funded by the gas industry to get around that in some way, but is by far and away the most perfect and beautiful LSR car even made in my eyes.
Should I mention the Budweiser Rocket...
I actually had a look at the Blue Flame wiki page and learned something I didn't know, that it was coasting through the measured mile!Should I mention the Budweiser Rocket...
Basically they lit the rocket got up to ~650 mph and then coasted through the measured mile.
The issue is that throttle control is difficult on rockets at the best of time and going into a deep throttling condition that would allow you to maintain around 700mph is basically impossible on the tight budgets that LSR team operate, they would have needed to build a two chamber rocket.
Talksteer said:
The issue is that throttle control is difficult on rockets at the best of time and going into a deep throttling condition that would allow you to maintain around 700mph is basically impossible on the tight budgets that LSR team operate, they would have needed to build a two chamber rocket.
Not easy, but certainly not impossible, even with a single chamber rocket.As I've repeatedly pointed out, we managed it back in the 1950's, to a standard acceptable for certification for manned flight (including in-flight shut-down and restart), with nothing more than slide rules, drawing boards and ingenuity to rely upon. With today's electronic crutches to simulate everything down to the effects of the pilot farting, it really ought to be a piece of piss.
I'm told by the guy who designed it that the fuel pump was actually pretty straightforward: it was the regenerative cooling that caused the biggest headaches.
Talksteer said:
chunder27 said:
Breedlove in fact bought a rocket motor, and was considering it, until the fuel costs got insane, Blue Flame was funded by the gas industry to get around that in some way, but is by far and away the most perfect and beautiful LSR car even made in my eyes.
Should I mention the Budweiser Rocket...
I actually had a look at the Blue Flame wiki page and learned something I didn't know, that it was coasting through the measured mile!Should I mention the Budweiser Rocket...
Basically they lit the rocket got up to ~650 mph and then coasted through the measured mile.
The issue is that throttle control is difficult on rockets at the best of time and going into a deep throttling condition that would allow you to maintain around 700mph is basically impossible on the tight budgets that LSR team operate, they would have needed to build a two chamber rocket.
Equus said:
Talksteer said:
The issue is that throttle control is difficult on rockets at the best of time and going into a deep throttling condition that would allow you to maintain around 700mph is basically impossible on the tight budgets that LSR team operate, they would have needed to build a two chamber rocket.
Not easy, but certainly not impossible, even with a single chamber rocket.As I've repeatedly pointed out, we managed it back in the 1950's, to a standard acceptable for certification for manned flight (including in-flight shut-down and restart), with nothing more than slide rules, drawing boards and ingenuity to rely upon. With today's electronic crutches to simulate everything down to the effects of the pilot farting, it really ought to be a piece of piss.
I'm told by the guy who designed it that the fuel pump was actually pretty straightforward: it was the regenerative cooling that caused the biggest headaches.
The LSR people were trying to do it on a shoestring and hence something which just burned and coasted was far easier to engineer without blowing yourself up!
Talksteer said:
That project cost £5.75 million in 1960, adjusted for modern incomes that is between £277-350 million. That was a legit multi-year defence programme.
And for that £5.75 million, it provided multiple versions of the engine, including some that were produced in series (it powered early versions of the Blue Steel missile and served as a RATO unit for the V-bombers, as well as the SR.53[programme), tested and certified to the standards necessary to have them buzzing around populated airspace in manned aircraft... without, as I said, the benefit of CAD or computer simulations.Yes, it was a much more costly project, if you take into account inflation, but it also delivered much, much more than was necessary to squirt one man's ego trip across a desert for a few minutes.
Bloodhound (and other LSR projects, to be fair) justify themselves by claiming that they are breaking new ground technologically.
It's b
ks, quite frankly and I'd be a lot more sympathetic if they simply told the truth, which is that it's a technologically meaningless publicity stunt to keep a handful of guys in nicely paid jobs for a few years, at the expense of the gullible and deluded.Equus said:
It's bks, quite frankly and I'd be a lot more sympathetic if they simply told the truth, which is that it's a technologically meaningless publicity stunt to keep a handful of guys in nicely paid jobs for a few years, at the expense of the gullible and deluded.
Ever been owed £40k in back pay?ks, quite frankly and I'd be a lot more sympathetic if they simply told the truth, which is that it's a technologically meaningless publicity stunt to keep a handful of guys in nicely paid jobs for a few years, at the expense of the gullible and deluded.Ever had a breakdown due to a project?
Ever had to remortgage you house to pay bills due to unpaid wages?
Yet you still believe it's a stunt to keep guys in nicely paid jobs.....
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