New Zealand’s Jetblack will be powered solely by rockets to reach 1,000 mph

This is what the Jetblack rocket car should look like when chasing 1,000 mph.

Jetblack is hunting for the World Land Speed record and 1,000 mph. The New Zealand led group initially considered a mixture of jets and rockets to push their vehicle up to record-setting speeds. Now, rockets built in the United States will be the sole motivator. This gives the Jetblack rocket car a design that no longer needs openings for jet intakes and completely changes the requirements of packaging. 

The Fast Lane Car has quoted the press release sent out by Jetblack.

“There are two main points of difference with the new design. The first is the move to solely rocket propulsion using two hybrid rocket motors currently under development with our propulsion partners Space Propulsion Group, CA, USA. We established the relationship with Space Propulsion Group, who a world-leaders in hybrid rocket propulsion, in 2011.” Richard Nowland, Jetblack’s Managing Director & Founder said,“The work the group’s design team has undertaken over the past 12 months has resulted in a car that is less complex, produces considerably less drag, has greater controllability and the potential to achieve the target speed more quickly. In all, this is a significant advance over its predecessor.”

According to Jetblack, “The hybrid rockets in the new design also produce greater thrust, 35,000lb x2 as opposed to 20,000lbs x2, are of the same type that have been chosen to power Virgin Galactic’s passenger spacecraft. Unlike jet engines which require an air intake, with the rocket propulsion system all the fuel and oxidiser can be carried on board the vehicle. Eliminating this requirement for Jetblack has positive effects on both the aerodynamics and the vehicle’s structure.”

Jetblack’s choice of advanced hybrid rockets was based on safety, reliability and high performance. 

Space Propulsion Group Co-Founder, President & CTO, Dr Arif Karabeyoglu explains, “SPG’s advanced hybrid rockets deliver very high performance while retaining the safety, simplicity and controllability of classical hybrids. The inherent safety, throttling and shut down are the key virtues of SPG’s rocket technology which makes it ideal for this particular application.”

The current Land Speed record is 763 mph, set by Great Britain’s Thrust SSC in Oct ’97 at Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA.

The Fast Lane Car will update this story as more information comes in.

Here’s a video of Roman and Nathan smashing their TFLCar high altitude, real world testing speed record in an Audi R8!