Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

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TheGreenGoblin
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Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#1 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 10:23 am

My recent visit to a museum to see Donald Campbell's museum and the exhibition of the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus engine used in his boat Bluebird that crashed and killed him at Coniston Water got me wondering about other record attempts and the use of aero engines in other vehicles and for other purposes.

This chap has produced a wonderful series on the British land speed record series and the vehicles and aero engines used therein...



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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:00 pm

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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#3 Post by unifoxos » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:19 pm

Sent from my tatty old Windoze PC.

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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#4 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:42 pm

unifoxos wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:19 pm
John Dodd?
Unifoxos's fascinating link to the article about English maverick John Dodd inclined me to look further and I found this Wiki link...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-R ... ative_uses
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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#5 Post by tango15 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:52 pm

Well here's one for ya! This car is street legal, too. It turns up at lots of events in the east of England in the summer months and is a regular at Santa Pod. Puts a whole new meaning into being burned off at the lights!

http://www.oklahomawilly.co.uk/
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oklahoma willy.jpg

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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#6 Post by izod tester » Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:09 pm

I remember seeing some Tractor towing competitions on Eurosport years ago when I was working in Brussels. A quick Google found this:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... Y1hK4NWKbr

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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#7 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:26 pm

Some great posts and links here although I must admit that when I first saw "Oklahoma Willy" just for a moment I thought that it might be a post intended for the Sick Bay forum on the Sexually Transmitted Diseases thread! =))
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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#8 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:10 pm

I read somewhere that Donald Campbell, who was a keen pilot himself (very keen on the Aero Commander), purchased an ex RAF Folland Gnat at auction for £200 in 1964 in the development of the "new improved" Blue Bird and cannibalized the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus engine , which powered his final, and ultimately fatal, record attempt in 1967.

The Orpheus became the core of the Pegasus engine.



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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#9 Post by Pontius Navigator » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:38 pm

Not jet powered in one sense, but at full chat great reversing the truck

https://uk.toluna.com/opinions/4492443/ ... ow-blowers,

https://www.popularmechanics.com/techno ... lish-snow/

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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#10 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:18 am

I was prompted to ask the question "what is the highest speed a screw driven boat has ever achieved?" after noting the huge problems associated with cavitation when driving propellors through the water, particularly when using engines with a large amount of available torque (usually the case with aircraft engines). This question was partly prompted by reading of the demise of Henry Seagrave, John Cobb and Donald Campbell, who all died while attempting new water speed records. While not all of the boats driven by the aforementioned men were screw driven, the problems they faced on water whether propellor driven, or jet engined, craft, were almost more intractable than they issues they had faced on land! The book I am reading is "The Fast Set" Three Extraordinary Men" by Charles Jennings and I thoroughly recommend it to those who are interested in this kind of thing.

While Aussie Ken Warby has held the World Water Speed Record since 1978 at 318 miles per hour, this was achieved in a jet powered boat, so the answer to my simple question about propellor driven boats has been difficult to obtain, but undoubtedly, over the 1/4 mile these drag boats are some of the fastest, in the world hitting speeds of over 250 miles an hour and more. The acceleration of the machines in the first 100 yards or so is phenomenal, far faster than a car! They also sound absolutely wonderful although what you are hearing here is the same 8,000 HP, supercharged 500 cubic-inch Hemi engines that you’ll find in Top Fuel Dragsters!



http://www.yachtsboats.co.uk/worlds-fas ... 33mph.html
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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#11 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Dec 07, 2021 12:20 pm

TheGreenGoblin wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:18 am
While Aussie Ken Warby has held the World Water Speed Record since 1978 at 318 miles per hour, this was achieved in a jet powered boat

The new Warby boat was looking good in shakedown trials in 2019, before Covid struck, here it is running some 80 miles and hour below his previous record speed... tickling the Moray eel's tail..

This is a superb documentary on Warby, a polymath of the old school kind. Go to 20:00 for the meat on the boat's design.



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Re: Aero Engines used in cars and boats...

#12 Post by AtomKraft » Sun Jan 09, 2022 10:36 am

Gobbers.
I quite agree, 'Scarf & Goggles' is a really excellent YouTube channel, although I expect he will run out of material in due course.

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