Schools in Sanday and Stronsay will take on the Bloodhound Challenge on Wednesday 8th March. This is part of a unique engineering programme to encourage students to research, design, build and test a Rocket Car.

Students and staff work in collaboration with other educational centres and experts in the fields of mathematics and engineering.

Dr Peter Hylton, Curriculum Leader  for Mechanical Engineering, North Highland College said:

“In this time of restricted budgets and a challenging educational environment, there remains a great need to train new engineers and scientists.  Small schools in remote locations can struggle to provide experiential learning opportunities in these fields for their students.”

“The Bloodhound Education Project, provides educational materials to all participating schools. Such material can be used by maths and science teachers to relate educational concepts to one of the biggest engineering challenges of our era – the Bloodhound Rocket Car designed to break the World Land Speed Record.”

“North Highland College, as the Bloodhound HUB for the north of Scotland, is working to bring the Bloodhound Challenge to as many northern schools as possible.  This year, in conjunction with Orkney College, North Highland is extending the project to schools on the islands of Sanday and Stronsay to ensure that these students have the opportunity to experience the excitement of the engineering profession, and encourage them to consider careers in science and engineering.”

According to their website:

The BLOODHOUND Project centres on BLOODHOUND SSC, a supersonic car that is designed not only to go faster than the speed of sound (supersonic) but to over 1,000mph (1,600km/h). It will cover a mile in just 3.6 seconds.

BLOODHOUND SSC is approximately 13.4m long and weighs 7.5 tonnes. The design is a mix of car and aircraft technology, with the front section being a carbon fibre monocoque (like a racing car) and the back portion being a metallic framework and panels (like an aircraft). The two front wheels sit within the body and two rear wheels are mounted externally within wheel fairings.

The Car will be powered by both a jet engine and a rocket, which together will produce more than 135,000 horsepower: that’s more than six times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together.

Over 110 man years of effort have been invested in the design, build and manufacture of BLOODHOUND SSC.

What a great way to get students interested and involved in applied mathematics, research, engineering design and most importantly working together as a team. Best wishes from The Orkney News and we will let our readers who cannot get to Sanday know how it went.

Curriculum Leader  for Mechanical Engineering, North Highland College Dr. Pete Hylton, CEng, MSc (ME), MSc (Math), Ed.D., FIET, FSAScot, Fulbright Scholar