Spirit of Australia
Spirit of Australia is a wooden
speed boat built in a Sydney backyard, by Ken Warby, that broke and set the world water speed record on 8 October 1978.[1][2][3]
The record and boat
On 8 October 1978,
jet fighters and other aircraft. Spirit of Australia is displayed permanently at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales.[7]
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.[8] Warby and his son Dave then worked on a new boat, Spirit of Australia II, powered by a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus jet engine taken from an Italian Fiat G.91 fighter.[9][10][11] This was completed in December 2004. In 2007 Ken Warby handed over the reins to his son who achieved 314 km/h (195 mph; 170 kn) on a testing run on Blowering Lake in 2018.[12] As of 22 May 2021 the team are still modifying the design. [13]
See also
References
- ^ "Spirit of Australia". kenwarby.com.
- ^ "Spirit of Australia - Ken Warby". solarnavigator.net.
- ^ "The world's fastest boat...Spirit of Australia". anmm.gov.au. Australian National Maritime Museum.
- ^ a b Worlds Fastest Boat (all 4). YouTube. 4 August 2008 [1978]. 3 minutes in. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
- ^ "Water speed record (fastest boat)". guinnessworldrecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
- ^ "Union of International Motorboating Record". uimpowerboating.com.
- ^ "Ken Warby and SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA: Still the world record holder, 40 years later".
- ^ "Aussie Spirit". Warby Motorsport. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
- ^ Huxley, John (14 February 2015). "The Warby need for speed". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ "David Warby hopes to claim his dad's world water speed record on Blowering Dam in 2017". No. The Leader. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ "SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA II". Warby Motorsport. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
- ^ Jefferies, Chris (20 May 2021). "Fastest boat: The 4 current contenders for the world water-speed record". Motor Boat & Yachting. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ warbyadmin (3 April 2021). "May 22nd &23rd tests back on Blowering Dam". Warby Motorsport. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spirit of Australia.