Final Water Speed Record Attempt
In 1966, Campbell decided to try once more for a water speed record. This time the target was 300 mph (480 km/h). Bluebird K7 was fitted with a lighter and more powerful Bristol Orpheus engine, taken from a Folland Gnat jet aircraft, which developed 4,500 pounds-force (20,000 N) of thrust. The modified boat was taken back to Coniston in the first week of November 1966. The trials did not go well. The weather was appalling, and K7 suffered an engine failure when her air intakes collapsed and debris was drawn into the engine. By the middle of December, some high-speed runs were made, in excess of 250 mph (400 km/h) but still well below Campbell's existing record. Problems with Bluebird's fuel system meant that the engine could not reach full rpm, and so would not develop maximum power. Eventually, by the end of December, after further modifications to her fuel system, and the repalcement of a fuel pump, the fuel starvation problem was fixed, and Campbell awaited better weather to mount an attempt.
Read more about this topic: Donald Campbell
Famous quotes containing the words final, water, speed, record and/or attempt:
“After the final no there comes a yes
And on that yes the future world depends.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Panache upon panache, his tails deploy
Upward and outward, in green-vented forms,
His tip a drop of water full of storms.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Spig Wead: I’ve been thinking what a heel I’ve been about you and about my own kids. I don’t know, when I do something, I go all the way. Living. Gambling. Flying. I tap myself out. I guess that’s the way I want it to be. Maybe even the way I am.
Minne Wead: Star-spangled Spig. Damn the martinis, full speed ahead and don’t give up the ship.”
—Frank Fenton, William Wister Haines, co-scenarist, and John Ford. Spig Wead (John Wayne)
“Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary masterplan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people’s own failure as individuals.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“Many attempt to harvest what was never planted.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)