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Wednesday 12 September 2012

Newquay test fixed for Bloodhound land speed rocket

Bloodhound SSC
The Falcon rocket will sit below the Eurofighter-Typhoon engine

The firing of the biggest rocket in Britain for some 20 years will take place next month at the Aerohub, Newquay Cornwall Airport.
The hybrid rocket is being developed for the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car, which will attempt to reach 1,000mph (1,610Km/h) in 2014.
Newquay Airport is one of the few UK locations equipped to handle the test.
The Bloodhound team will conduct a number of experiments leading up to a high-power firing on 3 October.
Capable of producing 27,000lbf of peak thrust (122kN), the 18in by 12ft (45cm by 3.6m) rocket will be bolted to a stand so it cannot move.
"We're still in the research and development phase of this project, but the firing at Newquay Airport will be the first time we've pushed the [rocket] chamber in the region of its performance limit, and it should make for quite a spectacle," rocket creator Daniel Jubb told BBC News.
Remarkably, his power unit will not be the only one in the Bloodhound vehicle when it tries to break the world land speed record on a dried-up lakebed in South Africa.
There will also be a jet from a Eurofighter-Typhoon and the engine from a Formula One car.
In rocketry, hybrid means a mix of solid and liquid propellants. In this case, the British rocket will be burning a mixture of a solid, rubber-like fuel (HTPB, or hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) and a liquid oxidiser (high-test peroxide, HTP).
Jubb and chamber~
The rocket has been developed by Daniel Jubb and his company, Falcon Project Ltd
For Bloodhound's record attempt, the rocket will be required to operate for about 20 seconds, in which time it will consume almost a tonne of HTP. It is hoped the rocket will produce the equivalent of 20,000-30,000bhp during the burn - just under half what it should produce in its final, record breaking configuration.
From BBC News Science-Environment

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