Delivery of the Bloodhound supersonic car (SSC) to South Africa to undertake test runs at 1 300 km/h has been postponed to April 2014 and will not reach the country’s shores by the end of this year as the original schedule indicated.

Royal Air Force Wing Commander Andy Green told Engineering News Online at a press briefing, in Johannesburg, on Tuesday that the the UK-based Bloodhound team, which was made up of the core team who worked on the Thrust SCC in which Green had achieved the current land-speed record, would, therefore, possibly attempt its final goal of 1 600 km/h in 2015, rather than in 2014 as initially planned.

The runs will be undertaken at the Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape, where local workers had cleared 20-million square metres of surface.

Green noted that the Bloodhound team had decided to delay the project to ensure the car and tests were completed. He added that, if the Bloodhound had been delivered according to the original schedule, the first runs would have to be undertaken during the country’s hot rainy season.

“So, about one year from now, we will be bringing the car out to South Africa to do 1 300 km/h; once we have done that, we will take it back to the UK, make whatever changes we need to, put the bigger rocket in and come back to South Africa later in the year, possibly in 2015, to do 1 600 km/h,” he explained.

Green indicated that the Bloodhound team was still seeking a large South African sponsor, adding that the design and construction of the Bloodhound would cost about R220-million, while the tests and operations programme would add another R100-million, depending on the amount of test runs to be done.

He said construction of the 7.5 t, 13.4-m-long Bloodhound would be completed in 2013, while its Eurojet EJ 200 jet engine and the stage-one, lower-power rocket would be tested in the car in October this year.

Initial testing on the stage-one rocket was undertaken in October last year.

“The rocket comes in two stages – stage one, which is the lower-power rocket that will be used next year. It is a hydrogenperoxide rocket that puts out 4 t to 5 t of thrust, enough to get us to 1 300 km/h,” he indicated.

Green further added that the Bloodhound team would complete the development of the second-stage, high-power 12 t-thrust rocket next year, which would take the vehicle to 1 600 km/h. At this speed, the Bloodhound will be able to cover 20 km in two minutes.

The rocket test programme would run over the next 18 months, while about 30 test runs would be done between 2014 and 2015.

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JSE-listed telecommunications group MTN has been appointed as the official telecommunications partner to the Bloodhound project and would provide long-term evolution (LTE) broadband data backhaul technology from the desert to Upington, 200 km away, to allow for international connectivity.

MTN South Africa radio optimisation and planning GM Krishna Chetty is heading the construction of the radio network and other infrastructure at the pan to cater for the communications and telecommunications needs of the project.

He told Engineering News Online that the company would be spending between R30-million and R35-million to deliver the LTE technology and infrastructure for the Bloodhound project. He added that MTN would be testing the LTE network for on-car video and diagnostics upload, which could be a world first for LTE at speeds of well over 450 km/h.

MTN would also provide 3G/HSPA 900 Mhz coverage for visitors and media at the pan.