LAND SPEED RECORD CONTENDERS – AUSTRALIA
Aussie Invader 5R T
he team principal at team Aussie Invader is Rosco McGlashan OAM, the current Australian
land speed record holder at 498.2mph (801.8km/h) set in 1994 in Aussie Invader 2. A week later he had been running at around 580mph when the vehicle broke through the salt surface and was written off. Aussie Invader 5R (AI5R) has
been 11 years in planning and design, and construction began in 2009. As of November 2011 it was said to be approximately 40 per cent complete. Subject to the all-important finance being raised, it is hoped to start running the car by late 2012 or early 2013. The technical team is led by chief designer, Dr Ian Sutherland, and includes John ‘Ackers’ Ackroyd of Project Thrust fame. The vehicle’s 40ft (12.3m) chassis is based on a 36in (914mm) diameter steel tube with transverse bulkheads along its length. The nose section, v-shaped underbelly and top chassis section are in composite, the rollcage is 4130 tubular steel. The ‘R’ in AI 5R stands for
‘rocket’, and originally it was planned to use four small (15,500lb thrust) hypergolic (self-starting) motors that would have effectively allowed throttle control by virtue of being able to start and stop the motors as required. However, because of potential problems with supply, plus the cost and handling difficulty of the proposed oxidiser, HTP, or high test peroxide (H2O2) the team opted instead for liquid oxygen (LOX). This resulted in the switch to a single motor, similar to that formerly propelling Atlas rockets used by NASA and as inter- continental ballistic missiles. ‘A rocket-only car to us is the
only way to go,’ says McGlashan. ‘High-mounted intakes create lift, as Craig Breedlove discovered in 1966.’ Fellow AI team member, Brett Boughton, agrees: ‘Rockets have a massive advantage in terms of drag reduction. Because the Invader doesn’t need an air intake it punches a much smaller hole in the air and therefore requires less thrust to attain the same target speed than jet- powered vehicles.’
TECH SPEC
Aussie Invader 5R (
www.aussieinvader.com)
Length: 52ft (15.85m)
Weight: 9163kg (20,159lb) fuelled, 6363kg (14,000lb) empty
Chassis: steel tube monocoque with transverse bulkheads; composite nose, under belly and top section; 4130 steel rollcage
Engine: LOX/bio-kerosene pressure fed liquid bi-propellant rocket
Thrust: 275kN (62,000lb)
Wheels: four 900mm x 200mm solid forged aluminium alloy 2014T6
Braking: air brakes; parachutes; electro-magnetic wheel brakes
continued burning, and it goes through a progressive shut down sequence to prevent excessive deceleration. The propellants are fed to the engine using a high-pressure, onboard helium supply, rather than complex pumps and ancillaries. Although this adds extra weight, it is not seen as an issue, but rather a benefit because maximum acceleration has been set at 3.2g in order that wheel rotation can keep up. To slow down, AI 5R uses
Built by Rocket Lab Ltd of
New Zealand, the single liquid bi-propellant oxygen / bio- kerosene motor is said to develop 275kN (62,000lb) of thrust. It is a non-hypergolic motor, meaning it requires an additional chemical (triethylaluminium) to start ignition and maintain
a combination of natural aerodynamic drag, rear air brakes that are deployed at approximately 1100km/h (684mph), parachutes deployed at 480km/h (300mph) and 320km/h (200mph), and electro- magnetic brakes, which are actuated from about 290km/h (180mph). Suspension features a compressed rubber unit for the nose bogey that carries the front wheels and permits 25mm (1in) of suspension travel and +/- five degrees of steer. The solid rear axle is 125mm (4.9in) in diameter and has no suspension travel.
26
www.racecar-engineering.com • January 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100