''Spirit of Australia'' is a wooden

speed boat A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...

built in a Sydney backyard, by

Ken Warby Ken Warby (born 9 May 1939) is an Australian motorboat racer, who currently holds the water speed record of , set on Blowering Dam on 8 October 1978. As a child, Warby's hero was Donald Campbell, who died attempting to break the record in 19 ...

, that broke and set the world water speed record on 8 October 1978.

The record and boat

On 8 October 1978,

rode the ''Spirit of Australia'' on the Tumut River near the

Blowering Dam The Blowering Dam is a major ungated rock fill with clay core embankment dam with concrete chute spillway impounding a reservoir under the same name. It is located on the Tumut River upstream of Tumut in the Snowy Mountains region of New Sou ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

on opposite direction runs of and , for an official record of , with a peak speed of . It was powered by a

Westinghouse J34 The Westinghouse J34, company designation Westinghouse 24C, was a turbojet engine developed by Westinghouse Aviation Gas Turbine Division in the late 1940s. Essentially an enlarged version of the earlier Westinghouse J30, the J34 produced 3,000 p ...

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

. The engine was developed by the

Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, includi ...

in the late 1940s and was used for

jet fighters Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

and other

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

. ''Spirit of Australia'' is displayed permanently at the

Australian National Maritime Museum The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a Australian government, federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a nation ...

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. Origin ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Successors

Starting in the early 1990s, Warby built a second jet boat, ''Aussie Spirit'' powered with a fresh Westinghouse J34, but he never made a record attempt with it. Warby and his son Dave then worked on a new boat, ''Spirit of Australia II'', powered by a

Bristol Siddeley Orpheus The Bristol Siddeley Orpheus was a single-spool turbojet developed by Bristol Siddeley for various light fighter/trainer applications such as the Folland Gnat and the Fiat G.91. Later, the Orpheus formed the core of the first Bristol Pegasus ve ...

jet engine taken from an Italian

Fiat G.91 The Fiat G.91 is an Italian jet fighter aircraft designed and built by Fiat Aviazione, which later merged into Aeritalia. The G.91 has its origins in the NATO-organised NBMR-1 competition in 1953, which sought a light fighter-bomber (offici ...

fighter. This was completed in December 2004. In 2007 Ken Warby handed over the reins to his son who achieved on a testing run on Blowering Lake in 2018. As of 22 May 2021 the team are still modifying the design.

References

External links

{{commons category, Spirit of Australia
Australian National Maritime Museum
Water speed records Ships preserved in museums Museum ships in Australia Australian National Maritime Museum Jet-powered hydroplanes

The record and boat

Successors

See also

References

External links