Engine for 1,000 mph car to be tested

A rocket engine intended to power a car to speeds in excess of 1,000 mph is being prepared for a test firing in Britain, its developers say.

Newquay Cornwall Airport will be the site of the test of the biggest rocket fired in Britain in 20 years.

The hybrid rocket is being developed for the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car, which will aim to reach 1,000 mph on a South African dry lake bed in 2014.

"We're still in the research and development phase of this project, but the firing at Newquay Airport will be the first time we've pushed the [rocket] chamber in the region of its performance limit, and it should make for quite a spectacle," rocket creator Daniel Jubb told BBC News.

The rocket will not be the only engine in the Bloodhound; it will also have a jet engine from a fighter plane and a Formula One automobile engine whose sole purpose is to drive a high speed pump to deliver liquid fuel to the rocket at a rate of almost a ton in less that 30 seconds.

The Bloodhound should ready to begin "low-speed" trials on a British runway in mid-summer 2013, the team behind it said.