Bloodhound is the name of the ubiquitous Surface to Air Missile (SAM) that entered service around the end of the 50’s and was still doing service up to the 90’s. I even had an Airfix kit when I was a lad.
However, there is now another Bloodhound to get your heart beating. This Bloodhound does bear a striking resemblance to the SAM. It is long, streamlined and beautiful. But that’s as far as the similarities go. The new Bloodhound is a car but at 42 ft long it is half as long again as the SAM and weighs in at 6 tonnes which is well over twice the weight.
The new Bloodhound is being developed to take on the world land speed record. In fact the target is to take this “car” beyond the 1000 mile per hour mark.
Apparently Bloodhound has been trying to emulate the SAM. One of the major challenges has been trying to keep the car on the ground. The aerodynamic modelling has shown dangerous amounts of lift. Having resolved these particular challenges putting manufacturing contracts in place the team are now looking forward to building Bloodhound for real. The expectation is to carry out shakedown runs at the end of 2011 or early 2012
If you want more information the Bloodhound SSC website is … HERE
WrAnTz 