JET SPEEDBOAT SALVAGED

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27792, 18 October 1955, Page 11

JET SPEEDBOAT SALVAGED

CAMPBELL FAILS IN RECORD ATTEMPT LAS VBGAS, October 16. The turbo-jet speedboat, Bluebird 11, was salvaged from Lake Mead today after it sank when being towed ashore yesterday. Mr Donald Campbell, the owner and ; driver, had been making a attempt on the world hydroplane record, which he holds. He managed to scramble to safety out of the cockpit when the Bluebird went down stern first, and settled in a depth estimated at 50 or more feet of water. Mr Campbell failed to break his own world hydroplane record in the Bluebird at Lake Mead, but the runs were “taken” because of conditions. The Bluebird encountered heavy swells and was timed at 147.179 miles an hour for the first run over the measured mile and 162.822 on the second run. The official average was 155.00, far below the record of 202.32 miles an hour that Mr Campbell created on Lake Ullswater in England last July. The Bluebird, on the first run, obviously took it easy, and Mr Campbell, as he refuelled, said he could not make an official try for a new record. “There are enormous swells on the lake, even though you cannot see them. They are too much,” he said.