This is one of the most exciting challenges we have yet! This time, it is up to the GrabCAD Community to create a steering column and wheel for the BLOODHOUND Supersonic Car. Your design will be the sole connection of control between the driver, World-record holder and RAF Wing Commander Andy Green and a shuddering car rocketing across the desert at Mach 1.4!
The BLOODHOUND SSC Project has been going since 2006, and is in the process of constructing the final design with the ultimate aim of breaking the land-speed record again in 2013 or 2014. Powered by a single Eurojet EJ200 and a hybrid rocket designed specifically for this project(video here and designed by Engineers across the UK, the Bloodhound SSC will be travelling at 496 meters per second. Just visualize how long that is, and imagine travelling from one point to another within a single second. The rated output of the rocket alone will be 27,500 lbs of thrust, or roughly 80,000 hp!
Many different companies, engineers, designers and a lot of students have donated their time and expertise to manufacturing or designing various aspects of the Bloodhound SSC. Right now the final design efforts are going into the interior. And it is up to us to come up with a steering column + wheel. Unlike your average car, the driver will be mostly horizontal, looking forward. There are some CAD files that can be found here. As usual, if you have any questions, pose them on the Challenge page and someone from BLOODHOUND SSC will get back to you.
One thing we highly recommend is reading up on the progress of the project. They've documented a lot of the designing process on their website, from Computational Fluid Analysis to machining to chemical composition of the fuels. If you're design is going to be blasted across the South African desert, it might as well been a well-informed design.
But if that thought about having your hard work within a historic project like the BLOODHOUND SSC wasn't enough, there are 5 prizes. First prize includes a trip to the Product Innovation Congress in 2013 in Berlin Germany and a copy of SolidThinking Inspire. The Product Innovation Congress is an annual event filled with lots of great speakers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and BLOODHOUND SSC Chief Engineer (and Jury-member) Mark Chapman. Inspire is a really cool tool - it allows the designer to optimize shape and form of component parts to save materials without sacrificing strength. All this and a GrabCAD T-shirt, Mug and Oh, and $1000 bucks too! That's just the first prize!
Challenge deadline is January 31st, 2013. Good luck!
