Year 9 Bloodhound Design Engineering Challenge

No not the dog! Bloodhound SSC is a land rocket powered by a Eurojet EJ200 jet engine and hybrid rocket engine which is designed to reach speeds of over 1000mph and which is under construction to challenge the current land speed record (763mph).

On 10th November, 15 year 9 students participated alongside several other local schools in an EDT First Edition Event, held at Cheltenham Ladies College. Students were split into mixed teams with other schools and their challenge was to design their own version of the Bloodhound (powered by a pneumatic high pressure cylinder) and to demonstrate the design by firing it on the test track. Suddenly their understanding of force, friction, aerodynamics and finding solutions to real problems (how do we keep the car from taking off?) had a very practical application.

We are pleased that every team produced a functional design but some were definitely faster than others and three of our students contributed to the winning team.