Derek Watts Column

Ishook my head at the sheer contrast of the moment: A lone herdsman on an emaciated horse trotting past a massive white marquee perched on the sands of Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape. Inside the incongruous structure a team of engineers buzzed around a 13-metre mechanical monster – a cross between a fighter jet, a Formula One racing car and a spaceship. This is the Bloodhound. A brave British project announced in 2008 to shatter the world land-speed record using the collective expertise of engineers and scientists from around the world.

I had driven the 250 km to Hakskeen Pan from Upington nearly five years ago to meet the Bloodhound team who touched down in a Beechcraft King Air on the blistering mud amidst clouds of dust. They were humbled at how the local Siyanda District population had cleared a wide swathe, 20 kilometres long, stone by stone. For many of these impoverished people, it was their very first job in life.

The team were enthusiastic about returning within two years to have a crack at the record. Well, more than a crack – annihilating it with the Bloodhound, driven by the current holder, Andy Green, reaching 1,000 mph.

Think about that for a second... 1,600 km/h, which is nearly 400 km/h faster than the record set by the RAF fighter pilot on Nevada’s Black Rock Desert more than two decades previously.

That was the dream. But while the opensource online platform allowed specialists and students to fuse their scientific skills, it didn’t help to open wallets. And then late last year, there came shattering news. With Bloodhound no longer a pup and having undergone tests on an airport runway, the project went into administration.

Bloodhound was to be consigned to the scrapheap – literally cut in half because of some of the classified military equipment under its carbon-fibre skin.

The day before Bloodhound was to be put down, a retired Yorkshire engineer by the name of Ian Warhurst put in a bid for this unusual vehicle, and along with his sevenfigure investment took over the reins as CEO. It was not only an injection of funds, it was fresh blood coursing through the Bloodhound’s veins as it bounded from its new life in December 2018 to being shipped – or rather flown – to South Africa for test runs on Hakskeen Pan in November 2019.

Stepping into the temporary workshop, it’s an emotional moment to see this creation in the flesh. Though it’s now painted white to allow for future sponsors to feature their logos – there is still a cash crisis. Steel-haired pilot Green shows me around the seven-ton Tessie, including the cockpit with its vital controls and sensitive steering – you don’t need too many degrees of turn past the sound barrier!

Then we take a look at the back end where the Typhoon fighter-jet engine fits neatly under the immense tail fin. Below are the solid aluminium wheels – normal tyres would shred in seconds.

And possibly the most important equipment: a couple of parachutes, air brakes and wheel callipers to help slow the beast down. The maximum velocity is reached at about five kilometres – it takes twice the distance to come to a halt.

With military precision, the Hound is towed out onto the pan and a new track selected between the amazingly straight blue lines stretching to the horizon. That is where GPS painting technique comes to the fore. After a quick but thorough “preflight” check and a host of technicians to make sure the jet fires up, the Bloodhound barrels down the unusual runway, bursting eardrums and creating a huge sandstorm.

On this visit to Hakskeen they aimed to achieve 600 mph. And that is done and dusted – so to speak.

But I didn’t mention the gaping hole under the Rolls-royce jet engine. In 2020, they plan to fill the gap with a Nammo hybrid rocket, fuelled by solid hydroxylterminated polybutadiene and liquid hightest peroxide oxidiser. I don’t understand that either but it’s apparently a very “green” technique. The main point is that it should boost the Bloodhound to the immediate target of 800 mph – and another world land-speed record for Andy Green.

And if all goes according to plan – or pan, as it happens – this ultra-remote stretch of flat Kalahari sand will become the focus of world attention.