Can anyone tell me WHY

[yenrod]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8374491.stm...

The UK team aiming to smash its own land speed record by driving a car beyond 1,000mph (1,610km/h) has settled on a final design for the vehicle.

It has involved a dramatic, last-minute swap in positions of the power units, with the Eurofighter Typhoon jet engine now sitting above the hybrid rocket.

The car, known as Bloodhound, will be built in Bristol's docklands.

The team expects to start running the vehicle on the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape Province, South Africa, in 2011.

The dried-out lake bed had the perfect surface for the record attempt, said Bloodhound's driver, Wing Commander Andy Green.

"It's hard enough to support a six-tonne car on metal wheels but soft enough to allow the wheels just to sink in maybe 10mm," he told BBC News.....................................

 

[Arch]

Why? Why not?

Why did the Campbells spend and lose their lives pursuing speed records? Why do athletes compete to run faster, jump higher, throw further....? Why do 22 men run round a lawn kicking an inflated bladder?

 

[darkstar]

The constant drive to improve and better ourselves is what makes humans so successful isn't it?
If these people did not exist we would not have evolved at the rate we have.
I think it's awesome

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Why? Why not?

Why did the Campbells spend and lose their lives pursuing speed records? Why do athletes compete to run faster, jump higher, throw further....? Why do 22 men run round a lawn kicking an inflated bladder?

because they can.

 

[Norm]

I think it's awesome

Me too.

Although I still haven't figured out why 22 men run round a lawn kicking an inflated bladder.

 

[Coco]

I think this particular project is meant to inspire future engineers.

 

[Mr Pig]

I've met Richard Noble and he's the kind of guy who makes me proud to be British.

Nothing about getting a car to go along the ground at the speed of sound was easy. It presented technical challenges no one had ever conquered. Top engineering and planning minds worked relentlessly with not only no guarantee of success but the stark understanding that failure could mean death for Andy Green. Time, finances, seemingly everything was against them but they did it.

Why? To show that the age of courage and adventure is not dead? To show that this country still has what it takes to be truly great if it chooses to be? I don't know, but I do know that it's an inspiration to anyone with a spark of fire in their hearts to be at least a little bit better at what they turn their hand to and that's enough for me.

 

[Lardyboy]

Swansea uni is part of the development team. I think they are doing the "fluid dynamics" involved with the design and I believe Richard Noble came down, or is due, to give a talk in the uni about the project.

 

[Alan Whicker]

Nothing about getting a car to go along the ground at the speed of sound was easy. It presented technical challenges no one had ever conquered. Top engineering and planning minds worked relentlessly with not only no guarantee of success but the stark understanding that failure could mean death for Andy Green. Time, finances, seemingly everything was against them but they did it.
.

Took the words right out of my er, fingers.

Engineering development is one of the fields where Britain leads the world. One of the other things we do well is pushing the envelope. Good on 'em.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

it's a thing we do well, motorsport, so it's no surprise that someone from these shores will go after that sort of record.

good luck to them too.

 

[CopperBrompton]

I too have heard Richard Noble speak. Highly inspiring chap, and an excellent enterprise that inspires kids to become engineers and results in all kinds of engineering problems being solved along the way.

 

[Fnaar]

...I still haven't figured out why 22 men run round a lawn kicking an inflated bladder.

...when they could be playing footie instead

 

[mr Mag00]

why do you ride a bike?

 

[dellzeqq]

I ride a bike because it's fun, because it's economical, because it's quiet, because you can do it in company, and because it doesn't make a mess.

As for strapping people and wheels to jet engines and pretending they're cars - it's pathetic. I'd rather a tenth of all that effort and expense was put in to sterling engines.

 

[Landslide]

Why? Consider the following scenario...

Jeremy Clarkson walks into a pub.
Clarkson: "I've driven a Buggerti Hypercock at nearly 200mph!"
Andy Green: "Loser"

Worth every penny...