Restored Bluebird Runs on Coniston Water 57 Years After Campbell's Fatal Crash

Donald Campbell's restored Bluebird craft fired up on Coniston Water for the first time since the daredevil pilot's fatal crash on the lake almost 60 years ago.

He had been trying to push his world speed record past 300 mph (480 km/h) when the jet-engined hydroplane, known as K7, somersaulted on January 4, 1967.

Its mangled wreckage came up in 2001. The craft went to Coniston's Ruskin Museum two years ago after an ownership dispute settled with Bill Smith, the engineer who led its rebuild.

At about 2:15 p.m. BST, crews lowered it into the water ahead of safety checks. The move kicked off a week-long event with several runs planned at up to 150 mph (240 km/h).

Campbell set a further world best on land in 1964. He remains the only man to claim fastest times on water and land in the same year.

His daughter Gina Campbell spoke ahead of the event. She called the machine's return to the Cumbrian lake an "incredible achievement" and said, "I'm just wishing it was my dad in the cockpit."

She hopes the runs will spotlight his courage and the dedication of his support team from those years.

"It makes my father and his band of merry men look pretty damn brilliant if you think about it," she said. "They didn't have access to the technology we do today, so it makes those achievements even greater."

The week's events mark the 70th anniversary of Donald setting his first record on the lake in September 1956.

Australian Dave Warby handles the controls. He is the son of the late Ken Warby, who set the current water speed record of 317.59 mph (511.11 km/h) in 1978. Campbell's teddy bear mascot, Mr. Whoppit, rides with him in the cockpit.

Jeff Carroll, chairman of the Ruskin Museum that owns Bluebird and displays it in a dedicated wing, called it the "next chapter" in the machine's story.

"All this started for me as a kid brought up in Coniston, reading books on rainy Sunday afternoons about Campbell and this mythical boat that was in the lake somewhere," he said. "Then she came out and was no longer a myth. She was rebuilt by Bill and co, and you have to pay tribute to him because without his bloody mindedness it wouldn't be here."

A different team of engineers installed a replacement engine in recent months. They also checked electrical and hydraulic systems.

Bluebird last ran almost eight years ago on Scotland's Isle of Bute. Smith and a team of volunteers known as the Bluebird Project had restored it starting in 2006.

The Ruskin Museum filed legal proceedings in 2023. It said it had spent several years trying to get Smith and his organization to honor the original agreement and return K7 to Coniston.

Smith has repeatedly criticized the museum on social media since then. He recently alleged that Bluebird sustained damage from its new engineers.