Blue Bird K3

Blue Bird K3 is a hydroplane powerboat commissioned in 1937 by Sir Malcolm Campbell, to rival the Americans' efforts in the fight for the world water speed record.

Campbell had already used this engine in his Blue Bird car, and they had also been used in pairs in Segrave and Kaye Don's Miss England boats.

[2] Unlike Gar Wood's multi-engined monsters, Blue Bird was designed for a single engine, and the smallest possible craft to carry it.

[2][1] It was usual at this time for English hydroplanes to have their engines mounted as far astern as possible (Gar Wood disagreed, and had pointed this out to Segrave).

This rearward weight distribution encouraged planing, but could lead to some peculiar attitudes when setting off at slow speeds, as the whole boat appeared to be sinking by the stern.

Construction was of plywood, although the attention paid to weight-saving was such that this was laminated to order from varying numbers of veneers, rather than sawn from factory-made standard sheets.

Breaking the design speed of 130 would require another year, when on 17 August 1938 at Lake Hallwyl in Switzerland, a new record at 130.91 mph (210.63 km/h) was set.