Find this article in the February 2016 edition of the South African Popular Mechanics. It gives a great overview of the innovative technology that went into the antenna designed by Poynting for the Bloodhound SSC.

1. HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
FEBRUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 1312 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ FEBRUARY 2016
LAND SPEED RECORD TELEMETRY RIP, HUMVEE WATERPROOF DRONE HIGH-TECH ABATTOIR BASE STATION VANDALS
ROCKETSHIP RADIO
Keeping track of real-time data from Bloodhound SSC’s Land
Speed Record attempt involves some innovative technology
developed locally - and lots of heat.
SPEED
IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE?
NO, IT’S AN ANTENNA
“I must confess that it is our first water-
cooled antenna,” says Dr Andre Fourie, founder
and executive chairman of Poynting Antennas,
about the transmitting device his company
designed and built for one of their more
unconventional clients. Poynting is better
known for its work on more familiar trans-
mission territory (see “Busting battery theft”,
page 22).
“Imagine our first briefing with the team
from the Bloodhound Supersonic Car. They
were looking for an antenna that could relay
the data from thousands of streams of vehi-
cle diagnostics and real-time in-cockpit video,
while the vehicle would travel in a right angle to the MTN base station at a speed of 1 000
miles per hour.
“Oh, and they were fitting the antenna in the tail section. Right above the rocket.”
This unconventional request started a partnership between the Bloodhound team and
Poynting that will culminate in an attempt to break the world land speed record on
FLOCKANDSIEMENS

2. HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
14 www.popularmechanics.co.za _ FEBRUARY 2016 FEBRUARY 2016 _ www.popularmechanics.co.za 15
Springs and dampers
in the suspension
allow the L-ATV to
move 70 per cent
faster across terrain
than current military
vehicles. The suspen-
sion is also adapta-
ble. It can lower the
L-ATV so that it fits
into transports
designed for
Humvees.
1985–2015
MILITARY
A EULOGY FOR THE HUMVEE
In 2015, the Army awarded truck-maker Oshkosh Corporation a
near R100 billion contract to replace the US military’s long-time
workhorse, the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle,
with the newer, fancier Light Combat Tactical All-Terrain Vehicle
(L-ATV). One veteran would like to say a few words.
BY ROBERT VRABEL
I LEFT HOME FOR THE ARMY on my
18th birthday. Overnight I found
myself in the middle of an
Alabama summer. There were drill
sergeants screaming in my ears
and I was doing push-ups until my
face was buried in the thick red
mud that the state is famous for.
These trials came as no surprise to
me. The Humvee, however: a sur-
prise. I’d never in my life driven
anything larger than a coupé, so
taking the wheel of an enormous
vehicle I’d seen only in photo-
graphs was terrifying. Over time,
though, driving the Humvee
became second nature. That’s how
it happens for most soldiers.
Did the Humvee have its prob-
lems? Of course. It had an annoy-
ing habit of not starting in the
cold, so during an overnight bliz-
zard in the mountains of Bosnia,
Private Yours Truly was tasked
with starting 11 of them every
hour on the hour to keep the glow
plugs warm for a morning mission.
It was also notorious for both heater and air-conditioner breakdowns,
leaving soldiers to face the elements with nothing more than our
issued equipment.
That said, in its 30-plus years of service, the Humvee has rarely
failed entirely. It’s carried troops over mountains and deserts, through
mud and forests. I witnessed troops using it to rush to the aid of out-
numbered soldiers, firing support from a mounted MK 19 40-mm gre-
nade launcher. I watched it take the brunt of a detonated IED so that
humans didn’t. It wasn’t always perfect, but it could be relied on to
adapt to the mission. That’s about all you can ask of any soldier, and as
soldiers go, the Humvee was a good one.
THE NEW
RECRUIT
Behold:
The L-ATV.
The L-ATV is practically a
mobile command-centre:
Each vehicle is equipped
with multiple frequencies
of radio communications,
satcom, surveillance cam-
eras, and a vehicle-to-
vehicle intercom system
that can be modified from
mission to mission.
Because of the high
number of IED casual-
ties during the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, the
military began bolting
steel plates on Humvees,
eventually relying more
on mine-resistant
vehicles, such as
Oshkosh’s Mine-
Resistant Ambush
Protected vehicle
(MRAP). The L-ATV
offers similar protection
to an MRAP, but at
roughly two-thirds the
weight.
An optional hybrid diesel-electric
powertrain, called ProPulse, improves
fuel economy by up to 20 per cent
over the Humvee, and powers a gen-
erator that can provide 120 kilowatts
of AC power for external computer
and communications devices in
the field.
Haakskeenpan in the Northern Cape some
time in 2018.
Bloodhound SSC will aim to smash the
current world re cord set by ThrustSSC
in 1997. ThrustSSC harnessed a twin
turbofan jet engine to hit a top speed of
1 227,985 km/h. In doing so, it became
the first “car” to break the sound barrier.
To trump the ThrustSSC and earn the
hallowed title of “Absolute World Record
1 Mile Flying Start”, the Bloodhound
SSC will harness a Rolls-Royce jet engine
with 90 kilonewton thrust and a Falcon
Hybrid Rocket Motor with 111 kilonew-
tons of thrust. It aims to hit 1 000 miles
per hour (1 690 km/h) from ignition in
55 seconds, becoming the first car to top
1 000 mph on land.
“Apart from the excessive heat, our
Poynting antenna had to be crammed
into a small space in the tailfin, about 15
per cent of the antenna’s original size,”
says Michael Howard, CEO of Poynting.
The smaller size potentially limited
the antenna’s power, or gain in engi-
neering speak. This was further exacer-
bated by the fact that the Bloodhound
would be travelling at a right angle to the
base station, which means that the
strength of the signal would vary by its
angle, and subsequently its distance,
from the tower.
The Poynting team set about designing
a high-tech cross-polarised antenna that
was liquid-cooled and fitted into a
radome, similar to the type of antenna
fitted to a fighter jet. The radome is made
from a special material that is invisible to
radio signals and helped to shield the
antenna from excessive wind buffering.
“To test our new antenna, we bor-
rowed a supercharged Jaguar XKR and
fitted the antenna. We drove it at high
speed straight towards the base station,
to simulate the Bloodhound SSC passing
at a right angle,” says Howard. Once the
team were happy with the tests they
returned a very dusty XKR to Jaguar and
mounted the antenna to an L39 fighter
jet trainer. After a few fly-bys they were
satisfied and the antenna has been deliv-
ered to Bloodhound in the UK.
“If all goes according to plan, you will
be able to watch live streaming video of
the 1 000-mph attempt. All thanks to a
proudly South African antenna sitting
chilled above a Falcon Hybrid Rocket,”
says Fourie.
● Source: Poynting