Image: Stefan Marjoram)
[h=1]In the driver's seat of the 1000-mile-per-hour car[/h]13 June 2014 by Paul Marks
This is the newly completed cockpit of Bloodhound SSC
Centre stage is the 3D-printed titanium steering wheel that has been shaped to fit driver Andy Green's hands and fingers. The array of buttons on the panel controls instruments like the radio, air brakes and parachutes – while triggers on the rear of the handgrips prime and fire the rocket.
The carbon-fibre cockpit's tiny windscreen will not give Green the greatest of views. However, this is for a very good reason: the top of the structure has been designed to create a series of shockwaves that slow the airflow going into the Eurofighter jet engine just above and behind his head. If that wasn't done, supersonic air would reach the jet's fan blades, causing huge changes in pressure that could damage the engine.
The cockpit is armoured, too: even a stone flicked up at 1000 miles per hour could do Green some serious damage.
