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British engineers have unveiled plans for the world's first 1,000mph (1,600kph) car, a muscular streak of gunmetal and orange designed not to break the world land speed record but to shatter it.
Bloodhound SSC, named after the British cold war supersonic air defence missiles, will attempt to beat the existing record by more than 250mph.
The £12 million (BD7.27 million) car was announced by Lord Drayson, the UK science minister. Operating out of an aircraft hangar in Bristol, in the west of England, the team's engineers have been working on the project in secret for the past 18 months. Calculations suggest the car could reach 1,050mph, fast enough to outrun a bullet from a .357 Magnum revolver.
The car was proposed by Drayson, a racing car enthusiast, as a project to inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers, who are in desperately short supply in UK. The Bloodhound team plans to have the car built within a year, with the record attempt expected in three years.
The project brings together mathematician and fighter pilot Andy Green, who set the current land speed record of 763mph with Thrust SSC in 1997, and Richard Noble, who directed that attempt. The car will be the first to meld a jet engine for a Eurofighter Typhoon with a rocket booster. Together they will produce 20,000kg (45,000lb) of thrust.
"It's an opportunity to do something extraordinary in engineering terms and to be part of the very best land speed record attempt in the world," said Green, 46. "It's more Buck Rogers than Wacky Races."
Green, a British Air Force officer, will use an accelerator to power the jet engine up to speeds of around 350mph and then fire the solid rocket booster. At that point, a V-12 racing car engine will start pumping more than a tonne of hydrogen peroxide into the booster, forcing the car to 1,000mph in 20 seconds.
"It's going to be quite uncomfortable. Where I sit will be just under the intake of the jet engine, so it's going to be acoustically quite challenging," he said, adding: "If I was worried I wouldn't be doing it, but I only met my wife last year, so it might be a scary experience for her."
Slowing down will also be a significant challenge. The car will use airbrakes and two parachutes to bring it to a rest after each run.
Team members are now visiting sites where the record attempt will be made. The current record was set at Black Rock Desert in Nevada. But that has been ruled out as ground conditions there have deteriorated since 1997.
In the next week or two, Green will visit a site in South Africa. Other possible venues are the salt flats of the US and Australia.
John Piper, the lead engineer on the project, said the team would build a full-size mock-up of the vehicle over the next month.
The project is an enormous engineering challenge. At speed, the car will experience pressures of 12 tonnes a square metre, similar to those experienced by submarines. The wheels will spin more than five times faster than those on a formula one racing car, generating forces that could rip them to pieces.
Engineers must ensure there are no gaps around the cockpit. If there are, all of the air inside it could be sucked out as the car breaks the sound barrier.
