China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has been named as The Bloodhound Project’s prime sponsor and official automotive partner.
Signed in August, the three-year agreement will see Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) provide technical and financial support to the Project, which aims to break the world land speed record in 2017 by travelling on Hakskeen Pan, South Africa at 1,000mph.
ZGH owns Volvo Car Group as well as London Taxi Company and is the parent company to Geely Auto, which has four international research and design centres, employs approximately 10,000 engineers worldwide and has also established universities, further education colleges and technology schools across China.
The partnership will see Geely Auto technology being used within Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC); Geely Group vehicles being used in South Africa throughout record campaigns; plus design and engineering support being provided, where required, to help the Project.
Jaguar will continue as technical partner to the Project and its V8 engine will remain the auxiliary power unit used to power the oxidiser pump for Bloodhound’s rocket.
As part of the deal, GHG will also promote the Project’s STEM Inspirational Programme throughout Asia.
Richard Noble, Bloodhound project director, said, “Not only are [Geely] an international technology company with tremendous vision and capability, they share our passion for innovation and education. Their support, both technical and financial, means we can now plan next year’s record-breaking challenge with confidence. It also means we can take our STEM inspiration message to a vast new audience, which is great for science and engineering but also for promoting Great Britain.”
Li Shufu, chairman, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, added: “Since day one we have been committed to breaking technology barriers at Geely and working with Project Bloodhound will help further our mutual technology breakthrough to an international audience.
“It also means we can tell millions of young people, in China and around the world, about the opportunities presented by studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That is what makes this ‘Engineering Adventure’ so special and why we wanted to be part of it.”
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Engineering facts
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BLOODHOUND’s wheels spin at 10,200rpm – that’s 170 times per second. They generate 50,000 radial G. At this speed, a 1kg bag of sugar would weigh 50 tonnes, or the equivalent of a fully laden articulated lorry.
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BLOODHOUND will run on the Hakskeen Pan, South Africa. This is an alkali playa, which is essentially a dried-up lake bed.
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A team of 317 members of the local community were employed to clear the desert. They shifted 15,800 tonnes of stones by hand, from an area of 22 million square metres, the equivalent of clearing a two-lane road from Bristol to Moscow.
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For the 1,000mph (1,600km/h) runs in 2018, BLOODHOUND SSC will be fitted with three hybrid rockets, which, when combined with the EJ200 jet engine from a Eurofighter Typhoon plane, will produce 135,000 thrust horsepower – equal to 180 Formula 1® cars.
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BLOODHOUND will decelerate from 1,000mph (1,600km/h) at 3G, equivalent to slowing from 60mph (100km/h) to standstill in 1 second.
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BLOODHOUND will go from zero to 1,000mph (1,600 km/h) in 55 seconds and back to zero again in a further 65 seconds, during which time it will cover 12 miles.
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The EJ200 jet engine consumes 65,000 litres of air per second, sufficient to suck the air out of an average sized house in just 3 seconds.
I thought at the begining this was going to be an all British project but every time read fresh news its not going to be. First it was with Nammo and now it seems something else that were giving to the Chinese.Oh dear David the Confused
“…..tell millions of young people, in China and around the world, about the opportunities presented by studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” Well the Chinese have got that message loud and clear. What a pity we forgot such for so long. Mind you, we do lead the world in PR, meja studies, -ologies, cheating the government out of tax (accountants), covering-up for criminal acts….and building white elephants.
Fair comment Mike: but where, these days, would you find a UK-owned auto-maker with the capacity to offer support at the level required?
Well, British companies don’t feel like paying more….so….on to people who will.
This was a British project supposed to show the world how good British Engineering is. But as per normal the monies were not made available to support this ground breaking record attempt. I remember taking my son and his friends to IMeche lecture on this before he sat his GCSE`s he and his friends are at University and by the time the Bloodhound project finishes they will be completing there Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering. It helped raise interest in Engineering and should be re-launched in the UK with every school taking advantage of the fantastic teaching support offered by the team.
“Let China sleep, for when she wakes, the world will tremble ” [Bonapart,N]
Any nation run by an elite group, each of which studied Engineering/Technology first I believe is going to out-smart those ‘run’ by lesser brains. Politics, philosophy and economics (and detailed studies of Romans and Greeks -should that be geeks?!) puts us well behind? Oh I forgot: they are good at conning the population into voting for them in the five-year conn they pull.
Graham: auto (as you perhaps know) is not my field. In 1970 there were about 40 ex-privately owned, turned Plcs textile machinery manufacturers. I worked for one of them. The one that made the machines which put the ‘crimp’ into Crimplene -the terrible (actually dressed-up it wasn’t too bad) yarn/fabric worn by your old aunts and grandmother. Indeed previously by the 60s swinging London set! [Believe it or not, one of the salesmen for ICI who made the ‘base-flat-yarn’ was none other that Richard Noble-of Bloodhound?!] These firms (all UK based and owned) offered machinery to process textiles from bale-of raw fibre and polymer to finished garments on racks in M&S. [There were dozens of processes in-between. Most had substantial export business as well. Where did they go wrong, against French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swiss competitors.? I’ll tell you. They all went Public: their directors insulated themselves from any mistakes and spent most of their time ‘puffing’ to the financial ‘meja’ to keep the share-price up: (or down, depending on whether they were buying or selling! A recipe for continuous disaster. Sadly, I have watched almost every one go belly-up: and this whilst the population (and disposable income) of the vast majority of the world’s inhabitants) has doubled: and hence and thence the demand for textile machinery likewise. I suspect many other industries can offer similar examples.