Year 7 had a supersonic day at King's Bruton

Year 7 had a supersonic day on Tuesday at King’s School, Bruton!  The Bloodhound team were visiting with a replica of the car that they are building with the goal of breaking their own land speed record later this year and going on to break the 1,000mph barrier next year.

As well as an opportunity to look around the car and learn all about how it works (do you know the difference between a jet engine and a rocket engine? Their car has one of each), two practical sessions were laid on. The first was all about the technology of 3D printing, which is being used extensively within the project as it is so much less wasteful in materials than traditional manufacturing techniques. The pupils had an opportunity to simulate the process using cardboard to build up their own model cars in a similar way to how 3D printing works, then adding a balloon to give it some jet propulsion. They also saw the printer in action.

In the other activity they used Kinex to build a car around a compressed-air fuelled rocket tube. They had lots of opportunity to do test runs so that they could make those all-important design improvements. Finally their cars were put to the test, with the winning team having their names put on the tail fin of the actual car that will be challenging for the record – an amazing prize which had the teams really thinking about their designs. Despite some pretty disastrous trials, with cars falling apart and bits flying everywhere, all teams ended up with a car that travelled a reasonable distance.

The eventual winners were Dan M, Josh B, Oliver C and Toby P, with a car that travelled considerably further and faster than any other.

It was an inspiring day, with lots of the pupils coming away thinking that a career in Science or Engineering really could be quite exciting.

Mr O'Neill

Many thanks to the staff at King's Bruton for inviting our pupils to take part in the day.