The rocket that will help power a 1,000-mph car passed its first
test Wednesday, British engineers say. The project is dubbed
Bloodhound SSC. Its organizers plan for the pencil-shaped car to
be zooming along the South African desert next year and break
the world land speed record of 763 mph. "The initial indications
are that it went very well indeed," the rocket's designer, self-
taught engineer Daniel Jubb, 28, told the Western Morning News
in Cornwall, England, where the rocket was tested inside a
hangar at a Royal Air Force base. Engineers were looking over
reams of data from the test to determine their next steps. Jubb
calls the Bloodhound's power plant a hybrid system, but it's not
the type you'd find on your uncle's Prius. It's a hybrid because
the rocket uses a solid fuel, which is a synthetic rubber, and
turns it into an aerosol with with a high-test peroxide and
catalyst of fine silver mesh. The fuel is actually fired into
the rocket by a Cosworth engine of the type found in Formula One
race cars. The