The Bluebird Project

My experience of Elvington on the Stay Gold effort was of a long strip of perfectly smooth tarmac. I drove my road car along it flat out much to Malcolm's annoyance as l kept posting superfluous times on his timing gear, then l walked along a long stretch of it at the far end looking for a piece that had come off Stay Gold and it was smooth underfoot too. I think suggesting there's an inherent problem with the track is like suggesting there's a problem with the sea because Carl fell foul of it.

thunderer wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 9:36 am
Either way, a tragedy and not the first incident to occur there, which in and of itself raises serious questions.

Just to clarify the intent of this part of my previous post..

It was intended as raising questions about how safe the vehicles are/were for the intended speeds, whether suitable safety equipment was installed in the vehicle/s and what safety equipment the driver/s are/were using being fit for the intended use/speeds.

It was not intended to raise questions about the location.

thunderer wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 2:59 pm It was intended as raising questions about how safe the vehicles are/were for the intended speeds

There are now two ongoing inquiries and the matters concerning you all will be revealed in the Coroners Court. The vehicle remains under the control of the police, they took control of the accident scene and everyone on site was kept away.

Elvington Crash update: The Police informal interviews of those who were present on the Airfield are on-going (17/10). Once completed the Coroner will receive a report from the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police. Motorsport UK (the governing body) and the HSE are running parallel inquiries. Both the Coroner and HSE may make recommendations, at some future time. Motorsport UK can of course alter their Speed Record rules.

Nice to hear Dave Warby has had a safe day of trials. They had a 10knt cross wind on the lake so there were some issues keeping the boat straight (sounds familiar) today’s speed was 170 mph.

Good write up before the practice and summary https://www.smh.com.au/national/new-att ... 56ayh.html and equally impressive from their FB posts
https://www.facebook.com/warbymotorspor ... 23971/?t=9

Bloodhound for sale! (again!!)
https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/ ... hound-ssc/

A terrible shame. How long before R-R ask for their engine back and then what? Switched off for good and consigned to gather dust in a crusty old museum? I very much hope someone steps up to take this forward but at the moment I'm just not seeing it.

I have just been informed of the death of John Ackroyd.
John was a great designer and his website shows it all from ballooning to WLSR.
He was a good friend of mine and I went to his house several times to see him. On the last occasion with Chris Loney, We drove down to see him in horrendous weather with at one point water covering the land on both side of the Motorway. We caught the Hovercraft over and that was an experience to put it mildly. John picked us up and we went to his house and discussed the Endeavour WWSR project and he showed us the aluminium thrust 2 wind tunnel model. He gave us both signed copies of his book. At the harbour on the way back I managed to get a photo of him fooling about on the quayside before out hovercraft set off back to the mainland. That was a scary ride home, I saw a girl on board go literally green and then throw up. We got to the mainland and watched the hovercraft start to go back to the Isle. I recorded it and it got blown backwards under full power until it gave up and cam back to the mainland. He corresponded for a few years sending designs and calculations for us. This included full plans for a reverse 3 pointer.
I was sorry to see him suffering from Alzheimer's and forgetting people and thing . He tried to carry it off and fought it but he did deteriorate.
I am sorry a great man and friend has gone.
RIP John your memory will live on.
Polo

Bored out of my brains with nothing to do due to Covid I decided to watch National Geographic 'Drain the Ocean' s2 ep 11 'The secrets of Loch Ness' near the end of the programme there was a section on John Cobb and Crusader showing footage of the crash from the front which I have never seen before. It also shows the ROV footage of the boat and the sonar results showing Crusader although broken up is in the main intact. Worth a watch!