Donald Campbell's Bluebird set to return

[Still Waters]

Donald Campbell's Bluebird will take to the water for the first time in more than 50 years this weekend.

The record-breaking hydroplane is being transported to the Isle of Bute in Scotland, where it will undergo tests.

Campbell, 45, was killed when the Bluebird K7 - travelling at more than 300mph - flipped and crashed on Coniston Water in 1967.

A team has been working on the restoration on Tyneside after it was salvaged from the lake in 2001.

Campbell was attempting to break his own water speed record of 276mph when he crashed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-45037080

[Still Waters]

Video:

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Bluebird flies again: Hydroplane's engine turned on after 51 years

https://news.sky.com/video/bluebird-flies-again-engine-on-after-51-years-11462265

 

[ChrLzs]

Wow.  That took me back - Donald Campbell was my hero as a youngster, holding both land and water speed records at one time. I used to (sadly no longer) have a model of one the land 'Bluebirds', and it was my pride and joy.

I can still remember the horrified awe I felt when I saw that terrifying news footage of his craft destroying itself - and him - on Coniston Water.

He was one of those old-fashioned true heroes.

[Still Waters]

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Donald Campbell's rebuilt Bluebird has travelled at 100mph during a test run on a Scottish loch.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-45097592

 

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The man who restored Donald Campbell's Bluebird has said he does not want it to be locked away in a museum.

Bill Smith recovered the wreckage of the hydroplane in 2001 from Coniston Water in Cumbria and rebuilt it at a workshop on Tyneside.

Following a successful test run on Loch Fad in Scotland there have been offers for him to take it around the world.

But there are also calls for it to be housed in a specially-built extension in the Ruskin Museum in Coniston.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-45194976