The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2
General Category => Totally Off-Topic Discussions, Rants, Tire & Oil Threads, Etc. => Topic started by: Air4Life on October 03, 2012, 10:52:44 AM
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"The third engine, a Ford Cosworth engine usually used to power a Formula 1 racing car, is the fuel pump."
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/03/07/the-car-faster-than-a-speeding-bullet/
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/10/03/with-a-roar-supersonic-car-takes-big-step-forward/?mod=google_news_blog
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Sobering stuff the main engine (18" diameter) has more HP than the F1 starting grid, Dainel Jubb (rocket scientist) this young man just into long pants sports a superb handlebar moustache and fills the bill as a true English eccentric.
Guess who he also works for......Uncle Sam
Lou
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I just hope that thing doesn't blow up, or become airborne and crash at that speed - 1495 feet per second is certainly faster than most all of my pistol bullets, but not even close for my rifle loads, save for my "light plinking" 45/70 load.
I would be scared to be piloting that thing!
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Remind me of a couple of good old British rocket powered aerospace vehicles.
The first is the bloodhound radar guided SAM. Probably where this project took its name from. This beast had legendary performance and was powered by solid fuel rocket motors and two ram jets. "By the time the missile has just cleared the launcher it is doing 400 mph. By the time the missile is 25 feet from the launcher it has reached the speed of sound (around 720 mph). Three seconds after launch, as the four boost rockets fall away, it has reached Mach 2.5 which is roughly 1,800 mph"
The best bit was that its warhead was a chain link - come along side a target, explode and cut it to pieces...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bloodhound
I remember visiting one of these missile batteries as an Air Cadet in the early 80's at a place called Barkstone Heath. I will never forget that.
The other was the Saunders Roe SR53/177 mixed propulsion interceptors. After dealing successfully with the safety shortcomings of the Me 163 Komet fuels/rocket motor this aircraft had a small jet engine (Viper) for cruise and landing and a Rocket motor (Spectre) for high speed dash/climb. I love the names of the powerplants - straight from Jerry Anderson's Captain Scarlet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.53
Unfortunately both came a croper, as did many other Aircraft with the Sandy's white paper and the infamous 1960's Lockheed 'dirty tricks' with the F104 Starfighter, where many European polititians (especially the Germans) got caught with thier hands in the sweet jar again. The last prototype for the SR53 is at Cosford Air museum.
Got to love the Cold War.... :D
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And speaking of Formula One,
Enjoy those V-8 engine sounds while you can. F1 is poised to next year (IIRC) begin mandating V-6 engines. Buzzy little chainsaw motors they'll sound like.
I'm old enough to have watched NASCAR's second tier Busch/Nationwide races when they ran V-sixers. Lame. The France family eventually wised up to their so-called "engine cost savings rule".
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I remember attending F1 races in the late 70's when the first V6 turbo's were introduced by Renault. Compared to the other V8's and flat/V12's the turbo cars were virtually silent as all the exhaust noise was being absorbed by the turbo. They seemed quite dull.