The Bluebird Project

We need to take the tails off those bolts holding the screen in place.

Richie wrote:We need to take the tails off those bolts holding the screen in place.

That's a classic response Richie[.][.]

I must say I'm really envious of all you guys & gals, your abilities, skills and dedication are second to none.
Must be awesome to be involved in all these interesting & historical projects!!
Cheers
Wayne


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I was a bit dubious about playing with a jet car. I've always viewed them as, well, a bit amateurish and dangerous and as for all this gratuitous popping and banging and sheets of flame, that should be reserved for people who think Subarus are cool cars.
But here was a chance to work with a different gas turbine and it was interesting to catch and kill the gremlins one by one until we got to Friday afternoon and were able to give the machine full power. And then it fell over! but, nothing daunted, not much repair work needed and there's oodles more performance to be extracted if it's needed so we'll keep at it...

If you need someone to clean your spanners (nearly wrote tools gulp) I'm your man Bill!
Cheers
Wayne


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What a brilliantly written piece!

not seen the video before.... so it all goes wrong as he gets off the gas, is it the precession that changes and gets him or was it something else?

not seen the video before.... so it all goes wrong as he gets off the gas, is it the precession that changes and gets him or was it something else?

No definitive answer but it would appear to be a combination of the setup of the car and the met conditions at the time. Just one more gremlin to catch and kill. Most importantly, both car and driver are in good shape.

according to tat article (linked above), The incident was invoked by the parachute mounting position, which then lifted the rear wheels....

Sounds a tad dubious yet at the same time, it also sounds quite feasible too oddly enough.

I have heard of such incidents with R/C jet powered rails (I know, wrong terminology), though they were not running at over 250 mph.

The incident was invoked by the parachute mounting position, which then lifted the rear wheels....

Sounds a tad dubious yet at the same time, it also sounds quite feasible too oddly enough.

Because the parachute was mounted to the lower frame member there is a vertical component that tries to lift the back of the car when the 'chute is deployed but it's of no concern at the speeds we were achieving so long as we're going in a straight line. Where it appears things got out of hand was when the 'chute fired into a crosswind introducing a horizontal component too such that the rear of the car was lifted and jerked to the right whereupon it tripped over the right, rear wheel. The 'chute then kept everything sliding in a fairly straight line until it ran out of authority as the speed decayed and the whole shooting match completed a single lazy roll before flopping back onto its wheels. It seems likely that the 'chute mounting position had little or no relevance in the circumstances. Not completely sure on that one - will report in due course.

I would opine that the position of the chute anchor points were in the best place possible and were not a causative or contributory factor, to raise them would only serve to create a greater lever when the chute is deployed, as such it would take less effort for the chute to pull the car over, especially if there is a lateral component present (ie cross wind).


With regards to Bill's comments on the car tripping over, I would expect to see some rather nice dark black banana shaped tyre marks on the runway surface in an arc travelled by the car as the wheel has offered the tyre side wall to the road surface... You might even see some striations in the marks pending on the nature of the cars movements immediately before it rolled onto its side. Alas I was not there to see it for myself, but I have no doubt the car left a smorgasbord of data behind, post collision.


I would say fit a small drogue chute to shave some of the speed off before the main chute deploys, however, I am told space is a premium at the site.

perhaps air brakes like the buccaneer used to have, or reverse thrust nozzle on the jet pipe.

anyways... enough crazy talk from me !