Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/23/bloodhound_car_project/
Thrust SSC team to build 1000 mph 'Bloodhound' car
Drayson fixes comeback gig to boost UK Sci/Tech
Posted in Science, 23rd October 2008 12:29 GMT
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Comment A new bid to break the land speed record using British technology was launched today by the Science Minister, Lord Drayson. The idea is that breaking the previous record (held by the same British team mounting this attempt) will inspire schoolchildren to embark on careers in science and engineering.
Bloodhound. Exciting new technology?
The new "Bloodhound"* supersonic car (SSC) will once again be driven by RAF pilot Andy Green, the man who took Thrust SSC through the sound barrier and into the record books in 1997. The head of the Bloodhound project, as with Thrust SSC, will be Richard Noble - the man who took the previous record for Blighty in the Thrust 2 jetcar.
The latest Bloodhound SSC effort is the brainchild of Lord Drayson, who proposed the idea of a comeback tour to Noble and Green in 2007. At the time he was minister for military procurement, but he resigned last year (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/08/drayson_quit_biofuel_racing_arms_tech_blimey/). He said at the time that his passion for racing biofuelled cars had become so time-consuming as to be inconsistent with government office. Others have suggested more plausibly that he was angered by the Army's refusal to comply with his defence industry ideas.
In any case, Drayson is now back as science minister, boosting the Bloodhound SSC scheme, which he believes will inspire young Brits to get into technology. According (http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/adventure.cfm) to Richard Noble, that was the case with the Thrust 2 and Thrust SSC efforts, and Drayson equates these with previous British engineering triumphs such as Concorde and the Lightning fighter**.
“This project is not just about the bragging rights to the world land speed record," he said. That's certainly true: nobody beat Noble's 1984 speed until he came back with Green at the wheel in 1997. Blighty pretty much has the land speed record arena to itself these days, though the late Steve Fossett was said to be planning an American attempt at the time of his death.
“The project’s involvement with young people is vital to inspire them about the exciting things that can be achieved by science and engineering," added Drayson.
"Ultimately, I hope that this iconic British project will encourage the next generation of scientists and engineers."
Those inclined to see the Bloodhound as a waste of government money will be glad to hear that it isn't:
The BLOODHOUND Project is a private venture. Government is part-funding the three year education programme but not the build and running costs of the car. These costs will be covered by sponsorships.
Except that the sponsors include the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Ministry of Defence, the National Physical Laboratory and at least two universities. So yes, government is funding it.
But perhaps that's OK. According to Mr Noble, a policeman recently told him: "My son wanted to study media at University, and he was so taken with the Thrust SSC project that he switched courses and is now an engineer.”
At least one young life straightened out, then, by Mr Noble's example - though Noble himself didn't go to university at all, preferring "to get on with life". Wing Commander Green has a first in mathematics, however, and Lord Drayson holds a PhD in Robotics. (Though he actually made his fortune as a regular business executive, by a management buyout at Trebor the sweets maker and later by selling his pharma'n'medtech company Powderject. There has since been some question (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4446978.stm) as to whether Powderject's vaccines actually work, and the eponymous injection device has not reached the market.)
So what do we think of the Bloodhound SSC effort, then? A praiseworthy attempt to get the nation's youth to actually do some work at school and university, acquiring the tech education that will make Blighty a wealthy powerhouse in future - rather than a nation of Nathan Barleys and Nick Leesons?
Still, you might say this is all a rather strange way of going about it. A hugely involved attempt to win a "competition" with no competitors other than oneself, laden with allusions to technological white elephants like the Bloodhound, Concorde and Lightning, led by men whose personal careers have included very little in the way of engineering ... what message does that send?
An intelligent child with a good Maths GCSE might look at all this and conclude that the way to success, riches and fame is not a career as an engineer (a real one, not an MCSE). Rather, the nipper might think, it's better to buy and sell companies or become a fighter pilot.
Just how all this sexes up science and engineering isn't totally clear - and just how much useful spinoff technology would come from a 1,000 mph car is equally obscure. After all, there are already (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/01/rocket_train_speed_record_secret_test_fun/) land craft which go a hell of a lot faster, being unburdened by FIA rules and the need to carry unnecessary pilots. Frankly, if the government has some cash and clout to spare for boosting technology through wacky projects, there seem like a lot of better things they could push - and perhaps some more inspiring glorious failures from the past they could mention.
How about an airship, for instance (obviously we would speak of the R100 rather than the R101)? How about some kind of nifty plane-copter combo (Fairey Rotodyne)? How about a space or hypersonics project of some kind?
And how about giving the attention and the OBEs to the scientists and engineers who actually make it happen, rather than pilots and businessmen?
Just a thought. ®
Bootnotes
*Named after the Bloodhound 2 surface-to-air rocket/ramjet missile. The Bloodhound was surely, as Mr Noble says, an "incredible" weapon. Anyone like your correspondent who has had the privilege of blowing up old Gosling boosters from Bloodhounds could testify to its remarkable power. Missiles like this, it was thought, would render manned fighters obsolete by the end of the 1950s.
In reality they didn't live up to their hype, and we are now several generations of manned fighters further on.
**It's hard not to love the Concorde. It's also hard not to see it now as something of a technical and commercial dead end. As for the Lightning, it certainly had its good points - but it never really became able to stay airborne for long, and was never fitted with any credible sensors or weapons. Some former Lightning pilots remain in the RAF at senior levels - though they lack some credibility among their juniors. (Sample quote, overheard, by an RAF Harrier pilot: "How would you know, sir? You only ever went up for twenty minutes"). And yes, everyone knows about the U-2 intercepts.