CRI听力:Bloodhound Supersonic Car Challenges Extreme Land Speed

Reporter:

"The car behind me, the Bloodhound Supersonic Car, over the next year we're going to work it up to not just the new land speed record this year, but ultimately next year to 1,000 miles an hour. That's not only 30 percent faster than any car in history, it's faster than any jet fighter has ever been at ground level."

Wing Commander Andy Green will be the driver of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car.

The current holder of the world record says the vehicle covers one mile in just 3.6 seconds.

Described as "part Formula 1 car, part space rocket and part supersonic jet", the rocket-and-jet-powered car has a thrust equivalent to 180 Formula 1 cars.

Chief engineer Mark Chapman describes how the car achieves its extreme speed, which is far beyond the speed of sound:

"With a jet engine on its own we can get to about 600 miles an hour. When we're trying to go supersonic, what Andy will do is wind the jet engine up to full power and then at about 300 miles an hour he'll put the rocket on as well. And with both of those at full power it will get him through the sound barrier and up to 1,000 miles an hour."

Mark says the use of innovative hybrid rockets is key to Bloodhound's pioneering technology:

"If we're to say what part of the car is really the cutting edge science, it's how we're using that rocket. That is what's going to be the next generation of green propellants for rockets, it's the system we're using on this car."

A bulletproof woven glass-fiber coating protects the vehicle against flying debris as the wheels will be rotating at over 10-thousand revolutions per minute, making any stones or debris kicked up by the wheels potentially deadly.

The vehicle was conceived and hand-built by an extraordinary team of world-class engineers.

It is supported by over two hundred sponsor companies and supported by twelve of the world's leading universities through technology, research, and development.

In September, the team will test the car in Hakskeen Pan, a flat baked mud flood-plain in Northern Cape, South Africa, attempting to set a new record of 800mph.

This will allow the engineers and scientists involved to assess the car's performance ahead of the planned 1,000mph attempt in 2016.

For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.