On the 31st December 1964 Donald Campbell broke the World Water Speed Record for Great Britain by achieving 276.33 mph. At present it's held by the Australian Ken Warby who clocked 317.60 mph in 1978 and it's time we got the record back !
So it's good to hear that Nigel Macknight and his team are planning to bring it back to Blighty with Quicksilver.
Over the past six years Nigel has been developing a craft that weights 3.5 tonnes, and measures 12.87 metres long, 3.33 metres wides and 2.9 metres high.
The biggest challenge seems to be achieving a rapid transition from traveling on the water (planing condition) and in the water (displacement condition). As water offers resistance skimming is the only way to travel quickly, but remember water is not like tarmac as its surface is continously changing so alot of time and effort has had to go in the hull design.
The main hull structure is made from high-tensile steel frame and a honeycomb composite sandwich skinning. The power plant comes from a single Rolls Royce Spey MK101 turbofan used on the Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer which produces 11,030 of thrust, that is twice the power of Bluebird.
The challenge is to break the record on Coniston Waters by 2009 !
