SpeedSpeed
Water speed record
511.11 km/h
317.589 mph
- Holder
- Ken Warby, Spirit of Australia
- Date
How the record evolved
The last record set in each decade, up to the current record (highlighted).
| Year | Record | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| 511.11 km/h | Ken Warby, Spirit of Australia | |
| 464.46 km/h | Ken Warby, Spirit of Australia | |
| 459.02 km/h | Lee Taylor, Hustler | |
| 418.99 km/h | Donald Campbell, Bluebird K7 | |
| 228.11 km/h | Malcolm Campbell, Blue Bird K4 | |
| 149.867 km/h | Garfield Wood, Miss America VII | |
| 114.04 km/h | Casey Baldwin, HD-4 |
Put them in order
Sort these records from the oldest to the most recent.
- 114.04 km/hCasey Baldwin, HD-4
- 459.02 km/hLee Taylor, Hustler
- 511.11 km/hKen Warby, Spirit of Australia
- 228.11 km/hMalcolm Campbell, Blue Bird K4
What to remember
On Blowering Reservoir, Australian Ken Warby drove his Spirit of Australia to 511.11 km/h (317.59 mph; 275.98 kn) on 8 October 1978. It is the unlimited water speed record, open to any propulsion method and ratified by the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM).
Warby already held the record in 1977, at 464.46 km/h. The history, which keeps one mark per decade, tells a long climb: 114.04 km/h for Casey Baldwin and the HD-4 in 1919, 149.867 km/h for Garfield Wood in 1929, 228.11 km/h for Malcolm Campbell in 1939.
The following decades saw speed leap. Donald Campbell and Bluebird K7 reached 418.99 km/h in 1959, Lee Taylor and Hustler 459.02 km/h in 1967. From the 1919 mark to Warby's, speed grew by a factor of 4.48. Two official attempts were made on the 1978 record, in 1980 and 1989, without success.
Related records
Sources and licences
- Value, holder and date: Wikipedia article “List of water speed records” (revision used 1379162247). Data from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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