Engineering staff help BBC with Top Gear rocket

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From UWE Bulletin February 2007

Staff in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences have been helping Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond with their latest stunt, flying a rocket powered car. The stunt was broadcast in the show on Sunday 18 February.

The series producer for BBC Top Gear, Pat Doyle, approached the CEMS manufacturing team with a request for help with the programme's proposed stunt. Dr Mike Ackerman and Chris Hart worked with Top Gear producers and members of the UK Rocket Association to run wind tunnel tests in CEMS using a custom built model of the Reliant Robin rocket powered car. The car was designed to look like a NASA space shuttle!

The plan was that a Robin would be fitted with wings, joined to a rocket and launched. To build it Top Gear had enlisted the help of Damian Hall and colleagues who are members of the UK Rocket Association. They had previously worked with Top Gear when they sent a rocket powered Mini down a ski ramp in Lillehammer, Norway. Construction was already underway in the north of England when UWE were contacted with a request for help with some wind tunnel testing.

Chris says, "First of all we needed to build a model of the rocket. I used CAD editing software to process the raw data supplied and then to build the components by using fused deposition modelling and stereolithography rapid prototyping machines. These build parts, layer by layer, with extruded ABS-plastic filaments or laser cured epoxy resin. The model had to be as accurate as possible but also strong enough to withstand the rigours of 100 mph wind speeds during testing."

Dr Mike Ackerman carried out the testing using a custom built mounting system to position the model in the wind tunnel. He says, "This allowed us to collect data at different flight altitudes and model configurations - for example with and without the booster rockets attached. The test results were fed back to the team building the rocket."

The model was filmed in the wind tunnel with presenters James May and Richard Hammond looking on. The two presenters also carried out some experiments of their own under the watchful eye of TG, the Top Gear dog.

Chris says, "Unfortunately the actual flight was only a partial success with the Robin making rather a hard landing. This was not as a result of any data supplied by UWE but from a minor system failure, albeit with a dramatic result!"

Filming took place in July 2006, and the show was finally broadcast on 18 February 2007.

UWE on Top Gear - Sunday 18th February 8pm 2007, the long awaited programme which engineers from our Faculty were involved in will be aired at 8pm. It features a Robin Reliant rocket powered car, sort of modified to resemble a NASA space shuttle! Mike Ackerman and Chris Hart both worked with UK Rocket Association and the Top Gear team to help make the stunt happen (but you'll have to watch on Sunday to see if it actually works!) - UWE News - http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/article.asp?item=1002&year=2007 - See http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/production_notes/shuttle.shtml - for details of Top Gear programme.