Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

[First time Juke]

Read it here;

http://www.stevefossett.com/

Looks like Eric Ahlstrom is the chief aerodynamist there.

[Peashooter]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

Does an LSR car have to be air-breathing? Wouldn't a rocket take away the drag of air intakes? A scaled up version of the Space Ship One engine would seem right for the job.

[First time Juke]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

Here is the link to Eric A:s other project.

http://renaissance-research.com/projects/

Engine specs are pretty interesting.

[F-16 CREW CHIEF]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

LSR cars don't need to be air breathing Roscoe mcglashen (misspelled name) in australia is building a rocket car for 1,000mph. Steve Fossett should have a better chance then the guys with the 104.

[Race5]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

I just hope the aero problem that threw that car on it's side at 650 with Breedlove in it doesn't pop up again.

[John]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

I just hope the aero problem that threw that car on it's side at 650 with Breedlove in it doesn't pop up again.

Yes, very good point. We visited Breedlove's shop back in 2000 (I think it was) and they were planning on incorporating some new mods for the supersonic attempt(by Breedlove at that time).

My impression of the problems the car had in '96 is two fold: One, not enough down force at the rear of the car. Two, they have(had) a movable vane just above and behind the driver for aerodynamic steering which may(IMHO) have caused the car to want to roll when deflected for turning.

It would be great to see them get that record though.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

He's using Breedlove's car? Dang. I guess Craig finally threw in the towel (money reasons?) I saw the car on display in the 90's at a local car show.

Looks like the North American Eagle team (converted F-104) are also making (slow) progress:

http://www.landspeed.com/March.asp

.

[blacksheep]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

the problem with using a rocket for a LSR attempt is the limited turn around time in order to make the return run.

The Blue Flame rocket car along with an unarmed Sidewinder missile for added boost broke the sound barrier but it was only a one way trip and the speed was clocked by radar so the record was never considered official

[Race5]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

the problem with using a rocket for a LSR attempt is the limited turn around time in order to make the return run.

The Blue Flame rocket car along with an unarmed Sidewinder missile for added boost broke the sound barrier but it was only a one way trip and the speed was clocked by radar so the record was never considered official

Actually that was the Budweiser Rocket car that was a project of Hal Needham and Stan Barrett. The Blue Flame did hold the record for a time before Richard Nobel broke it with Thrust II.

[RareHair75]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

http://www.bluebird-electric.net/blue_flame.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record

[Race5]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

See also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_Rocket_Car

[Ron101502]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

Remember Noble had two higher thrust Spey engines that were never used so I would think if his record was broken and he could find funding he might retake the record with the bigger motors. As I recall one big problem with the car was the intakes were so low that they couldn't apply mil power and light the burners until they had about 300 knots to keep from
FODding the engines which effectively shortened their track.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

.... As I recall one big problem with the car was the intakes were so low that they couldn't apply mil power and light the burners until they had about 300 knots to keep from
FODding the engines which effectively shortened their track.

It was actually about half that velocity. From the video shot from a camera mounted on the tail you can hear him say "mil power" just before he calls out 150 (knots), then you can see the burners lighting up just before he says "200".

Some fella pieced together video and photos into one clip, and uploaded it to Google. You can view it via the following link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4939002354358305753

It's amazing how quickly his speed rises once those burners are lit! Can you say "zoom, zoom, zoom?" (Mazda, eat yer heart out...)


More vids available at the car's official website:

http://www.thrustssc.com

.

[Ron101502]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

Thanks, just brainstorming, wonder if they could somehow rig the Speys like jet dragsters and light the burners at idle thrust, don't know how they could reprogram the exhaust nozzles as the jet dragsters use a fixed "wide open" nozzle, I recall Scott Hammack saying he had a couple differnt nozzes he selected based on atmospherei conditions.

[Ron101502]

Re: Steve Fossett to go 800 mph !

OK, I'm old and only had 285 hours in USAF F-4s, 6 hours in Cs and the rest in Ds and hard wing Es. As I recall the General Electric J-79-15 in the F-4C/D put put about 10900 dry and 17000 lbs thrust in full burner. The dash 17 engine in the E and Navy J made 11870 dry and 17900 in full burner. How is Fossest getting 22000? Although I heard from Mr. Gililland in a checkered flag club talk that Greenamyer somehow hot rodded the J-79 to higher power when he set his records he didn't elaborate,but 22000 is about what the a spey makes. But then the fuselage needs to be widened.

Roh