Swagelok Under Pressure: Launching into the Record Books
Swagelok Under Pressure: Launching into the Record Books
In 2008, some of the world’s most revered engineers set out to do the impossible: create a car that can reach 1000mph and shatter the FIA World Land Speed Record. They looked to partners like Swagelok to help them build the Bloodhound SSC (Supersonic Car), a rocket car that’s faster than a speeding bullet and capable of crossing more than four football fields in a single second.
Integral to Safety
Swagelok is a global leader in fluid system solutions. Every valve and fitting we create is designed to perform under pressure. So when the UK-based Bloodhound team began to engineer the record-breaking car that would take Royal Air Force Pilot Andy Green from zero to 1000mph safely, they knew they could rely on Swagelok for help.
Swagelok high-performance fluid systems are poised to help the Bloodhound Supersonic Car reach 1000mph
For the Bloodhound team, safety was an integral component of their engineering and development effort. Swagelok fittings, tubing, hose, pressure regulators and quick connects play a key role in the safe operation of the rocket propelled car in the following applications: winglet operation, air brake operation, rocket engine oxidizer system, consistent pressure delivery, fuel delivery, sealing the pump and rocket engine refueling.
Collaboration Between Partners Vitally Important
In working with Swagelok Bristol, the Bloodhound team was able to leverage our product and application expertise, unrivaled supply chain, quality and customer focused service.
“If you ring up a technical company, you want to talk to people that know about their product range. Those are really key things that we get from Julian and all the guys at Swagelok; it won’t be unusual for me to come in and find that Julian has come down to help one of my colleagues with a challenge that we’re facing.” – James Painter, Engineering Lead Bloodhound SSC.
Some additional facts on this remarkable attempt:
- The Bloodhound team scoured the globe to find the perfect desert to run the car on. It needed to be at least 12 miles (19km) long, 2 miles (3km) wide and perfectly flat. The Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa was selected.
- At full speed, Bloodhound SSC will cover a mile (1.6km) in 3.6 seconds – that’s 4.5 football pitches laid end to end per second.
- Bloodhound has three power plants: a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet from a Eurofighter Typhoon; a cluster of Nammo hybrid rockets; and a 550bhp Supercharged Jaguar V8 engine that drives the rocket oxidizer pump. Between them, they generate 135000 thrust horsepower, equivalent to 180 Formula 1 cars.
- Bloodhound’s wheels spin at 10200rpm – that’s 170 times per second. They generate 50000 radial G. At this speed, a 1kg bag of sugar would weigh 50 tonnes.
- Bloodhound will go from zero to 1000mph (1600kmh) in 55 seconds and back to zero again in a further 65 seconds, during which time it will cover 12 miles.
- The EJ200 engine consumes 65000 litres of air per second, sufficient to suck the air out of an average sized house in just 3 second.
Click here for more information on the Bloodhound SSC project.