The Bristol brains behind the Bloodhound

In an anonymous grey building on an industrial estate in Avonmouth the supersonic Bloodhound car is being pieced together by some of the UK’s best engineers and scientists.

The supersonic car stands alone in the centre of the huge warehouse floor. Components are fitted to it, taken off, adjusted, put back on, tested again and again until every detail is perfect.

It is this attention to detail that matters because at supersonic speed even the smallest details are crucial.

The Bloodhound will head to South Africa later this year aiming for a world land speed record of more than 700mph, returning in 2016 for a 1,000mph run.

Mark Elvin, lead engineer

Mark Elvin’s CV reads like a boys own dream. He started his career as an aircraft apprenticeship with GKN Westland, before moving to work with the Williams Formula One team.

Now he is lead engineer for a supersonic car and it is his job to pull the project together and, on such a unique project, he has come across some unique problems.

“Stopping the car taking off was a pretty big challenge in the early days,” he says.  “Aerodynamically getting the shape correct was crucial.

“In the later stages getting a wheel that would work proved to be very difficult. How do we make the wheel, what materials do we uses, what profile to have on them? Getting the wheels right was a huge challenge.”

Bristol really has given birth to the Bloodhound.  95 per cent of the car has been designed in Bristol and all of the assembly is taking place in the Avonmouth warehouse. It is a car and a project which cements the city’s heritage and reputation as an engineering power house.

Mark said he thinks the potential of the project is fantastic.

“The people of Bristol, when they see this car careering down the desert at 1000 miles an hour on its final runs, can say that was built on my doorstep”.

As a father of two he is in no doubt that the project has a responsibility to provide a lasting legacy. “It’s an education programme and it needs to feed children’s imaginations. During the late 60s and 70s when Saturn 5 rockets were going up the uptake of science and maths degrees in American universities was huge.

“We are trying to emulate that effect. We want kids to think I want to get involved in that…the reason we exist is to inspire children.”

Sarah Covell, head of IT

Six years ago Sarah Covell had just finished her degree in mechanical engineering at UWE. Now as head of IT for Bloodhound she will be one of the key team travelling with the car to South Africa.

She will be responsible for ensuring the land speed record attempts will be beamed live to a global audience of billions – a huge responsibility for a 26-year-old.

“When I first put my CV in to try and get a placement year I thought maybe there is a chance and when I got the job I was absolutely blown away,” she said. “This is a once in a generation project”.

The challenges of engaging the next generation of engineers is at the forefront of Sarah’s work. “We are meant to be inspiring the next generation,” she said.

“How do you do that nowadays? You have to be able to show it live, so we have live video and data coming off the car and part of my job is to make sure we have the desert connection – the internet connection to make sure we can share this with the world.”

A career as an engineer may not seem the most glamorous of choices, but Sarah is very clear what her job can lead to: “Men and women are both very capable at doing science, computing, maths and technology. It’s about getting that message out, that there are jobs out there and they are very exciting, very rewarding.

“You can start your day and finish your day on two different things – you are constantly learning. This is a rewarding career, you can have a lot of fun and it is a job for both men and women.”

Of course, once the car hopefully breaks the land speed record the project will finish.

“Once we’ve hit the goal we are effectively out of a job,” said Sarah. “I have been on the project for five and a half years. It’s coming to that point that I am excited -I want to see the car run.

“When it comes to an end I will be sad but I can look back in years to come and think wow that was amazing.”

Tony Parraman, head of sponsor liaison

A product design engineer and a former teacher, Tony has been involved in Bloodhound for the past six years – and he knows the project inside-out.

Over the years he has turned his hand to many of the roles required by such a demanding project and, as part of a team which went into schools to talk to students about engineering, he has seen first-hand how inspiring Bloodhound can be.

“I am now meeting young people in engineering companies who said to me they are only doing that because I went to give a presentation to them six years ago with some leaflets and a model.

“I think we will have a lasting effect because you can’t help be be inspired by a 13m, nearly 7.5 tonne car, charging down a desert with an 8m flame coming out of the back of it.

“It makes kids understand that the world around them is not just magicked out of nothing . It is actually created, designed by people and individuals and they could be one of those people that do that.”

Such a huge and demanding project always throws up new challenges for Tony. Not least has been trying to get Bristolians to really support the Bloodhound. “I would love it if the people of Bristol would take some ownership of the project and back it,” he said.

“I think this is a massive opportunity for Bristol to spread it’s wings more internationally and if they don’t take that opportunity it will be a sad day for Bristol.”

Facts and Figures

• Powered by a jet and rocket Bloodhound SSC is designed to go at 1,000mph
• It is approximately 13.4m long, weighs 7.5 tonnes and the engines will produce more than 135,000 horsepower – more than six-times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together.
• The Bloodhound will be driven by Wing Commander Andy Green, who holds the current land speed record of 763mph which he set in 1997 driving Thrust SSC.
• The world record attempt will take place on the Hakskeen Pan,in the north western corner of South Africa. A 300-strong team have been clearing stones from the 20km track in preparation for the world record attempt.
• The car is expected to begin its UK testing next month, with the intention of being on Hakskeenpan in September until November this year.
• The first attempt in 2015 will aim to break the current land speed record. The second attempt in 2016 will attempt to travel to 1000mph.

(Source: Bloodhound Project)

Road more about the Bloodhound project and the attempts to keep the car in Bristol

Photographs: Jon Craig (portraits) and Stefan Marjoram (car)