Great British Engineering

Great British Engineering

In the last blog I stated I would talk about great British engineering projects currently ongoing. 

I had lots of people recommending products and schemes to me. It is a really good feeling to know that the UK does still manufacture and create things. A different story to what we hear and see in the media. 

It was really difficult to narrow down the three I wanted to discuss, and of course I have to mention the Olympics; a good showroom of engineering achievements. 

As this is was originally for TEC magazine, it wouldn’t make sense to mention non-traffic related schemes, so in reverse order my top 3 exciting engineering projects are: 

Trampower’s new green and commercially viable tram and rail set up. 

Based in the northwest, Trampower have developed a tram that is half the weight of the trams in current use and the rails can be installed with minimal foundation and construction effort. 

The reason this project is exciting, is that Trampower uses existing technology and parts and utilises them to create an amazingly good looking and truly green system. Small towns will hopefully realise they can afford this system in their urban landscape. 

No 2 is the Brompton bike. 

Yes its engineering, look at the folding parts, and the beautiful design, and it can be put on a bus or train and used on our roads safely. The Brompton has been around for a while, but only recently it is an export champion. This British bike is selling well outside the UK, and people should pay more attention to its engineered brilliance. 

At first glance it looks like a child’s bike wheels have been fixed to a scaffold frame, but its genius is in its lightweight and how it folds up ridiculously small. Made in UK too, and used on British highways, though not by enough people in my opinion. 

Lastly, and this engineering encompasses everything about British engineering in my eyes. 

A car that involves truly mad but genius engineers, a truly mad, creative leader, built in a shed (literally), and has ridiculous but cool written all over it. 

Yes, I present the Bloodhound SSC project. It really is built in a shed on one of Bristol’s quaysides, it’s made from parts donated by British companies, it is being used to showcase engineering to schools and colleges, and it really is a car (with an F1 engine and rocket strapped on mind) that is going to go 1000mph in South Africa to break the land-speed record. 

What I really love about this project is that Richard Noble who headed the past project that broke the record is doing this to break his own one! Madness. 

But fantastic engineering and creativity all in one um… shed!

        

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