Speed Record Club

speed on wheels, water and wings

Work in Progress - November 2008

Contents:
North American Eagle.
Steam car latest.
Angelic Bulldog Project
Ian King progress
BUB7

North American Eagle.

Latest from Ed Sheadle, leader of the North America Eagle Project:

“We unloaded and setup on Sunday. It takes lots of hands, a forklift (donated by George Calloway) and a manlift (brought down by Steve Green). It takes all day to set up the coverall shelter, tools and stuff. On Monday, we unloaded the Eagle and configured it for the test runs. We made camp at the West end so we had to tow to the East end for our first run on Tuesday. Using a Topcon GPS system with marker tags set at 1/4 mile intervals we had a very accurate and straight course. It turned out that the middle of the course was extremely rough (and dangerously so!) and the front wheel was tearing up the course real badly. We encountered many problems at the beginning because of the heat but made one pass anyway. We hauled back to camp and licked our wounds and changed a few things including the front wheel assembly.

On Wednesday, we set up the course to run West to East and moved over to a smoother section. We encountered problems with the start cart because of the excessive heat. It was shutting down the computers, sapping power off the batteries and the flow valve on the start cart was binding. The ignitors on the J-79 wouldn’t fire and it turned out to be a loose cannon plug on the engine. We got in another run but the stupid driver forgot to turn on the hydraulic system and lost steering at the 1/2 mile mark, changed to the South side of the cones, then realized what he had forgotten, turned on the pump, slalomed back to the North side of the cones, made a quick burst of power then shut it off and coasted to the 2.5 mile. Steering works!"

Ed continues with the progress, including a run up to 400mph in FastFacts 71.

more on the North American Eagle website

Steam car latest.

12 boilers fully installed and in steam. We have been making clouds over Lymington and getting through thousands of litres of demineralised water.The car is run from the support rigs. The power rig is supplying 175 amps at 24 volts. The water rig supplies water at 40-50litres per minute at 40-bar pressure. The Gas and Air rig is used to supply liquid propane at 14kg per minute. It is a complex process.

The team has been struggling to balance the 12 boilers in super heat. However after nearly 60 hours of running the car we now have a controllable system, delivering superheated steam. Having waited so long to see steam coming out of the car we are now making a colourless gas that is invisible but very very loud.