In dry air at 68 °F, the speed of sound is about 767 mph, and while it may not seem that fast for an aircraft, the Bloodhound LSR wants to break that barrier on land. During its most recent test at the Hakskeenpan salt desert in South Africa, it manage to hit 628-mph from a standstill in just 50 seconds, thanks to a Rolls-Royce EJ200 afterburning turbofan engine. Read more for the video and additional information.
Bloodhound pilot Andy Green only wanted to break the 600-mph barrier, but since the engine responds differently to throttle input at higher speeds, there was around a 0.5-second delay where power stayed full, thus sending the vehicle to 628 mph as well as an extra kilometer down the course. This run may have concluded the high-speed trials for the Bloodhound LSR, but there is still lots of testing that needs to be done to break the existing speed record of 763 mph, before reaching for 1,000 mph.
