Cockpit Instruments Part 3 – The BLOODHOUND Driving Experience

by Andy Green

It’s too soon to finalise the instruments and controls that I will need in BLOODHOUND SSC. We’re still fixing the details of the various systems: electrics, hydraulics, engine start and control systems (for all 3 engines – the EJ200 jet, Falcon rocket and the 800 hp race car engine), safety monitoring, etc. Once that’s complete we can start to design the cockpit instruments in more detail.

The Intel/Cursive/Race Centre team discussing
the first run of the prototype Driving Experience

In the meantime, what we can do is test some ideas with various ‘simulators’ and ‘emulators’ (in simple driver terms, a simulator is designed to make the driver think that he/she is in the Car and an emulator is designed to make the Car’s systems think that they’re in the Car – a small but important difference). But the first thing we’re going to do is start with a ‘BLOODHOUND Driving Experience’, which will have its debut at Farnborough Airshow (19-25 July). The purpose of the ‘Driving Experience’ is to give you (and me!) a first look at driving BLOODHOUND, using the draft instrument designs, a realistic performance model and some high-quality graphics. To produce this, we’re getting some great help from IT partner Intel, together with Cursive Simulation and the Race Centre in Southampton.

The Driving Experience will not be a simulator as such. A proper simulator for BLOODHOUND SSC would take hours of study just to understand how it worked, then perhaps 20 minutes to get all the systems up and running and the engines started, and there would be plenty of little snags to look at – any one of which could stop the Car running. All in all, it would be a technically complex, time-consuming and occasionally frustrating experience – just like the real thing! Instead, the Driving Experience will give you a chance to jump in and have a go at a 1000 mph run, without too many ‘real-world’ problems. You will have to control the jet and rocket power, accelerating each one at the right rate and the right time, while you try to keep the Car straight against the effects of cross-winds, surface changes, etc.

Pause for discussion before another
1000 mph ‘Driving Experience’

So what instruments is the Driving Experience going to have? The picture below describes the current instrument layout and the basic functions of each one. When you are in the Driving Experience, you will see a number of these moving at the same time – temperatures, pressures, etc. – but the good news is that none of them will fail at any stage (it’s not a simulator!) so you can ignore everything except the gauges on the centre screen. If you are a real lead-foot on the brakes, you might also need to look at the brake temperatures at the end of the run, to avoid setting fire to them…... The task in the Driving Experience is as follows:

Release the brakes (left foot pedal)
Accelerate the jet engine (right foot pedal), following the speed cue on the gauge to avoid ‘surging’ (overloading) the engine
Keep the Car straight with the steering wheel
Light up the rocket to idle (left trigger on the steering wheel) at the first rocket cue
Increase the rocket to full power (right trigger on the steering wheel) at the second rocket cue
Keep steering all the way to the end of the measured mile!
Throttle back (right pedal) and shut down the rocket (release the triggers)
Wait for the airbrake cue and deploy the airbrake (first button on the left of the steering wheel), or
If you miss the airbrake cue, then deploy one of the brake chutes (the other 2 buttons on the left of the steering wheel) at the chute cue
Keep steering
Look ahead to see the recovery crew
Wheel brakes below 200 mph (left pedal) to stop the Car next to them.
Jump out and celebrate a successful run – Simple!

Now that you’ve learned the sequence, here are the controls:

Hover your mouse over the numbers to find out what all the labelled controls and instruments do. You’ll need to know some of this before you have a go in the BLOODHOUND Driving Experience – then come and give it a go at one of the future BLOODHOUND events!

instruments750

p1: 1. Brake Pedal
p2: 2. EJ200 Jet Engine pedal. The first 60% of the movement controls the ‘dry’ power range, the final 40% controls the reheat
p3: 3. Green buttons on the left side of the steering wheel – 2 brake chutes
p4: 4. Blue button on the left side of the steering wheel– airbrake
p5: 5. Radio and abort buttons (not used in the Driving Experience)
p6: 6. Data input keypad – the data is shown below the keypad and will vary from run to run. This tells the Car where it is and what the driver intends to do during the run, so that all of the speed and distance cues are calculated correctly
p7: 7. Battery voltages (24V Car power system)
p8: 8. HTP quantity – this will read about one tonne at start up: enough for 20 sec of rocket firing!
p9: 9. Jet fuel quantity – this will start at 400 kg and around 150 kg will be used during a run
p10: 10. Pressures applied to the wheel brakes when the brake pedal is pressed
p11: 11. Brake disc temperatures – for carbon discs, this can be over 1000 deg C
p12: 12. Warning captions – in case any of the above gauges go out of pre-set limits
p13: 13. Brake temperature warning, in case the driver is particularly hard on the brakes – this will come on at around 1000 deg C
p14: 14. Hydraulic system pressures – each system has its own accumulator. If the main system fails, these gauges will show what has failed and what is still working
p15: 15. Vacuum pressure for the wheel brakes – much like a road car system
p16: 16. HTP tank pressure, and tank and pump temperatures – any increase in temperature and we will immediately abort the run and flush the tanks, just in case
p17: 17. The RPM and coolant temperature for our 800 hp piston engine Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), which drives the HTP pump
p18: 18. Warning captions, to highlight any gauge out of limits
p19: 19. FIRE captions to indicate a high temperature has been detected in one of the rear bays
p20: 20. FLUID caption, to show that there is a leak somewhere in the APU bay
p21: 21. Distance run indicator, to back up the mile markers on the track
p22: 22. The start of the purple sector on the speedometer is the Rocket idle firing cue (left trigger on the steering wheel)
p23: 23. The start of the blue sector on the speedometer is the Rocket full power firing cue (right trigger)
p24: 24. Green diamond – brake chute cue (if the airbrakes are not already out)
p25: 25. Blue diamond – airbrake deployment cue
p26: 26. Loads on the front and rear wheels. These wheel loads are the most important safety element in the Car. If these stay within limits, then all will be well – so I’ll be watching them closely!
p27: 27. Airbrake position indicator
p28: 28. LOAD caption – in case the wheel loads start getting too low for comfort
p29: 29. ROCKET caption to indicate that the rocket safety systems have detected a problem and commanded an automatic rocket shutdown
p30: 30. Rocket power output. I may not use this much in the Car (the acceleration will let me know that it’s working!) but it will help in the Driving Experience
p31: 31. EJ200 power output – the purple sector is the ‘dry’ range (i.e. engine RPM) and the blue sector is the reheat (it actually shows is the area of the nozzle at the back end of the engine – a good indicator of reheat power output)

Note: the popups are designed to work with most modern browsers - if you can't see them then please go to the alternative display here.

Previous articles in this series are: