Thaindian News

London, Oct 23 (IANS) A British team is designing a car to break the 1,000 miles per hour speed barrier.The current world record is 763 mph, set by Andy Green, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot and mathematician, in 1997.

Green and his teammate Richard Noble, who directed the 1997 attempt, are now testing the new car in an aircraft hangar in Bristol. The 12 million pound car is called Bloodhound SSC, named after the British supersonic air defence missiles of the cold war era.

It will have a jet engine and a rocket booster. When run, a special accelerator will help the jet engine race up to 350 mph. Then the rocket booster will be fired.

At this point, a V-12 racing car engine will pump more than 1,000 kg of hydrogen peroxide into the booster, forcing the car to 1,000 mph in 20 seconds.

Green calculates the car can reach 1,050 mph, at which it can out-run a bullet fired from a Magnum .357 revolver.

To slow down, the car will use airbrakes and two parachutes to bring it to a rest.

The car is expected to be built in a year and the world record attempt may be expected in three years. Test sites are being checked out in South Africa, the US and Australia.

“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,” The Guardian quotes Green as saying.

The team plans to make public all information related to the making of the car to inspire a new generation of scientists in the country.

There are other teams which are planning to break Green’s land speed record. North American Eagle, a US project, is being designed to reach 800 mph. The Australian Invader 5R is about two years away from a 1,000 mph attempt. Spirit of America, a project of flying enthusiast Steve Fossett before he went missing last year, aims to breach the speed of 800 mph.