Electronic charge to 800mph

But having spent a few very interesting hours recently with the North American Eagle team, anticipating being told that the technology was more at the bleeding edge than the leading edge, it became apparent that this was not necessarily the case. In fact the basic car that will be used in the attempt to break the land speed record is a 55 year old jet plane that was recovered from a scrap heap. The engine was sourced from a company that recycles old jet engines to make pumps for the Canadian gas fields. One limiting factor is that the driver must control everything, so the sophistication that we are used to seeing in modern motor sport plays little part. Indeed the key area of interest from an electronics perspective was the sensors, instrumentation and data acquisition equipment being used during development and testing. The real technology trick comes in harnessing the 45,000 horse power in such a way that the vehicle remains stable. As you approach the sound barrier the shock waves generated can destabilise the vehicle and the pressures may not match a different points on the fuselage. It is frightening stuff and the test results (collected on an onboard laptop rather than zapped to a mobile control centre) are crucial if the NAE is to make its 800mph target. It only needs to go 1% faster than the UK's Andy Green's existing record of 763mph, but these are at sound barrier speeds at which point the journey could get bumpy. The upshot was that electronics will play a key role in making the vehicle safe when it embarks on its record bid, but during the record attempt itself the driver will be very much on his own. A 600mph test is scheduled for this October with the full record attempt sometime next year. You can keep up to date with North American Eagle at http://landspeed.com/ and there will be a full report in New Electronics next month.