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This paper details how computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is being used to design the American Challenger car, under development by Bill Fredrick. This rocket-powered vehicle is intended to set a new world land speed record. Initially, CFD revealed that a biconvex-shape airfoil for the canard and rear strut had advantages over a diamond profile because it limited large-amplitude oscillations caused by transonic shock boundary layer interactions. Later, CFD helped identify proper placement and orientation of the canard and strut to achieve the desired down force and stability. The use of CFD simulations with both propulsion on and off have helped to ensure that the vehicle will have the desired dynamic characteristics at all phases of the record breaking attempts: acceleration, record phase, and deceleration to full stop.

Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD is no longer the domain of just specialists. It is also being used by engineers and scientists in many disciplines who are interested in CFD as a tool to investigate other things and not as just an end in itself. The realization of this fact drives developers to produce user-friendly CFD products that automate most of the problem set up and solution process. The CFD++ software suite is a unified-grid, unified-solution, unified-computing CFD simulation capability that was designed from the outset to be effective from the user's perspective. The details are explained in this paper.