October Members' Meeting

Following last year’s successful inaugural ‘curry night’, SAM Members once again enjoyed a Members’ Meeting with a set Indian meal at the Lloyds Indian Restaurant in Knowle.  The meeting was attended by a total of 47 Members and guests, who sat down to poppadums, a starter, and a choice of two main dishes, accompanied by ample portions of pilau rice. Judging by the comments during, and after, eating, the meal was enjoyed by all present, with only one negative comment being voiced.

Following the meal, the after-dinner speaker was Peter McCree, who is an Ambassador for the Bloodhound Project, which is a global engineering adventure, using a 1000mph world land speed record attempt to inspire the next generation to enjoy, explore and get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The current world land speed record of 763.035 mph is held by Andy Green, driving a car named Thrust SSC, and was the first time any land vehicle went supersonic, i.e. broke the sound barrier. Thrust SSC was powered by two Rolls Royce Spey jet engines.

The new car is named Bloodhound, and is powered by a combination of a jet engine (an EJ200, the engine that is fitted to the Eurofighter Typhoon) and a rocket motor. In addition, as the rocket motor gulps fuel at a prodigious rate, a heavy-duty pump is required to cope, and this pump is driven by a V8 Jaguar engine. Once again Andy Green will be the driver on the world land speed record attempt, when he will aim to reach 1,050 mph. The attempt is planned to be done in three stages:

1. A low speed ‘work-up’ of the car, aimed at achieving 200 mph in gradual stages. This is taking place around now on the runway at Cornwall Airport in Newquay. For this stage only the jet engine will be used.
2. Following completion of the first stage, the car will be taken out to South Africa (which is partnering Britain on this project) in 2019. On a 12-mile long stretch of hard-packed desert sand, which has been prepared over the last two years, the aim this time will be to reach 800 mph. This, in itself, will be a world land speed record, assuming, of course, no-one else achieves this speed sooner.
3. Following successful completion of the second stage, further work and preparation of the car will take place with a view to going for the ultimate speed of 1,050 mph in 2021.

As mentioned above, Peter McCree is one of a number of Ambassadors for the Bloodhound Project, spread throughout the UK. In this role, he visits schools and presents the project to the pupils, with a view to encouraging them to take up one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects in tertiary education. It is estimated that in a few years Britain will face a huge shortage of engineering graduates, so this project hopes to play a significant part in reducing this shortage.

As well as presenting us with the facts of the project, and the attempt on the record, backed up by a combination of slides and videos, Peter interspersed his talk with, often humorous, anecdotes surrounding the enterprise. The whole talk was delivered in a very professional, informative, and interesting manner, and the Members were quick to show their appreciation at the conclusion. The high level of interest generated by the talk could be gauged by the number of questions asked at the end, all of which Peter was happy to answer.

In summary, the Members were treated to a good meal and a very good after-dinner talk, with wide agreement that this meeting format should be repeated next year.

Glen Bell