Project Bloodhound, the initiative to break the land-speed world record, has been halted, owing to a lack of funds, BBC News and other media reported at the weekend.
Engineering News in October reported that Bloodhound Programme, the UK company behind the project, had entered into administration, as it seeks about £25-million in funding to see the project to completion.
The project had operated on a partnership and sponsorship model, with support from various partners, including Rolls-Royce and Rolex, the UK Ministry of Defence and the Northern Cape provincial government.
As required funding has not been achieved, the Bloodhound supersonic vehicle – built with a Rolls-Royce Eurofighter jet engine bolted to a rocket, is now available at a cost of about £250 000, BBC News quoted the vehicle’s driver Andy Green as saying.
Project Bloodhound was founded in 2007 and aimed to hit speeds of 1 600 km/h at a specially built, 18-km-long, 1 500-m-wide race track at Hakskeen Pan, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.
To get the race track ready, hundreds of local community members had spent years removing about 16 000 t of stones from the track.
In addition to seeking to break the land-speed world record, the project was the focal point for a science, engineering and maths education campaign.