This Rocket Powered Car Is Engineered to Break the Sound Barrier

This Rocket Powered Car Is Engineered to Break the Sound Barrier

To break the world land speed record, this team is building a next-generation supersonic car. And after years of aerodynamic modeling, advanced engineering, and high speed testing, it’s almost ready to break the sound barrier.

The current land speed record is held by the Thrust Supersonic Car, or Thrust SSC. In 1997, Thrust SSC sped across the Black Rock Desert in Nevada at 763 miles per hour—breaking both the sound barrier and the world record. Now, there is a new team aiming to create the fastest car in the world. Dr. Ben Evans, an Associate Professor in Aerospace Engineering, and his team have engineered a next-generation supersonic car called Bloodhound. But, as to be expected, breaking the land speed record is not as simple as it sounds. Regulated by the International Automobile Federation, this competition has some ground rules: The car has to be controlled by a human onboard, it must have at least four wheels in contact with the ground, and the land speed measurement is the vehicle’s average speed over a measured mile the car does in two opposite directions within the span of an hour.