If all goes as planned, sometime next year, British air force pilot Andy Green will take the Bloodhound SSC to an unbelievable 1,000 mph, simultaneously breaking the sound barrier and shattering the world land speed record.
But obviously, there's plenty of work to be done before then, as there's nothing simple about a undertaking of this scale.
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The tailfin—itself composed of more than 139 parts—has to be completed, the cockpit must be tested to insure it'll withstand impact from a wheel fragment, and perhaps most importantly, the team has to insure the Bloodhound can be safely slowed from its four-digit target velocity. As you can imagine, that's going to take something that'll scrub speed even better than four-pot carbon ceramic stoppers.
Initial runs with the completed car will begin before the end of the year, but in the meantime, the crew employed a specially-built V8 F-Type R from project partner Jaguar to insure the parachute's deployment system will function perfectly.
Watch the video to see Green pop the chute at 180 mph on a runway at the Bentwaters Air Base in the U.K., and stay tuned for news about this historic attempt.
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