A British team is developing a car that will be capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h). Powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, the vehicle will first mount an assault on the world land speed record (763mph; 1,228km/h). Bloodhound should start running on Hakskeen Pan in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2017.
Exactly 12 months ago we held the public launch of the nearly completed Bloodhound SSC in the centre of London.
We were swamped by the media (over £100m of global coverage for the launch) and the general public, with some 8,000 people packing out our Canary Wharf venue during the two brief days that the car was on show.
It was obvious that we had a winner; now we just had to find the right partner to help us get it finished.
This has taken a little longer than we’d hoped, but finally we are able to announce our new Lead Partner, Geely (technically, it’s the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, but let’s keep it simple – Geely).
If we were choosing an ideal new partner, we’d look for someone that would understand Bloodhound’s mission as “an Engineering Adventure” to inspire the next generation’. Better still, we’d look for someone to help us put the Bloodhound Engineering Adventure in front of millions of people we haven’t reached yet.
Now here’s the good bit: the Geely Group makes cars (inlcuding Geelys, Volvos and London Taxis), the Group runs research and development centres around the world (including one in Coventry), and it’s also set up a number of universities in China.
This is a company that clearly understands the technology and the education mission of our story.
Following our recent press launch, Bloodhound is fast becoming big news in China and I’ve had two email enquiries already from the British Embassy in Beijing.
Thanks to this new partnership, we’re starting reaching out to country of well over 1.3 billion people, as well as the other countries in the region. We’ve only just started working together, but Geely already seems like a great partner for Bloodhound’s Engineering Adventure.
We’ve had a lot of texts, emails, tweets and notes of congratulations since we announced our new partner, as well as lots of “about time – when’s it running?” comments.
My personal highlight was seeing a picture of Bloodhound SSC, and our announcement about Geely, on a billboard in Times Square in New York.
From Beijing to NY, there is no escape, Bloodhound is coming to get you. Thanks to all of you who wrote in and yes, I do know just how you feel, I can’t wait to see it running either!
Source-BBC
