5 years
of
effort for a
Air
intake
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1960.
Fuel tanks total capacity 25 gallons
Porspux
cockpit canopy
Engine oil tank
Throttle and disc brake pedals
Front gearbox
Rear marhux
Exhaust ducts
Power in profile ... and the power comes from the jet angina behind the engine oil tank.
10-second gamble.
the Second
D World War Spitfire The China Mail salutes
were reaching speeds of
475 miles an hour and it
was considered
phenomenon.
A
risky
In a few days' time Donald Campbell will be trying to drive a car at that speed.
He has already broken the world speed recoril. Now he is attempting to be the fastest man on lund.
The cash
He has arrived at Salt Lake Flats, Utah to begin trials before he takes his four ton Bluebird, powered by 4,000 h.p. Proteus jet engine, out in an attempt on
the record.
He must make his bid in both directions on the arid sult flats within an hour if he is to exceed, the existing land speed record of 394, 196
Campbell and his Bluebird
by BASIL
knowledge and skill in builch- ing Binebird.
The car is the dream and brain-child of Donald Camp- bell.
CARDEW magnificent enthusiasm distinction of being the first
The body
Since Bluebird weighs 8,000lb., this means dissipating 42,000,000 foot-pounds of energy in minute the equivalent of stop- ping 13 ten-ton trucks travelling at 30 miles an hour,
Most of this energy has to be dissipated. by Ferodo friellon pads,
The David Brown Automobile Gear Division, of Huddersileld; have also played a big part in providing two spiral bevel reduction gear units. All four wheels will be driven.
Another point is that Blucotrd will have a fuller complement of instruments than any other land vehicle, and many of these are being used, for the first time on such a cir.
They are being supplied by
divisions of S. Smith & Sons providing the engine's plus.
Altogether more tran 40 instruments and indiestory tra being used.
With the other con- because it is light and tough. tributors, they have pro- and gives the sort of structural duced the most powerful efficiency we were looking for." (England) Lid., who are also.
The car was finally assembled machine ever to join the at the works of Mokers Panels (Coventry) Lid. a member firm famous line of Bluebirds,
of the Owen Organisation. By assiduous effort and The latest edition has the Campell aroused the in- Bluebird to be made of alu- terest of the bosses of the minium. It is also the first miles an hour set up by the 68 companies sulliciently for machine to be built without late John Cobb 13 years ago. them to begin designing bits a chassis.
His bid will take minutes. and pieces for the car. The actual record run should
Dunlops for instance built take less than 10 seconds at Fort Dunlop, Birming Behind it: five years of
hum, a special underground
cash.
The man responsible for these Innovations is Kenneth Norris, who designed the latest £1.000.000 Bluebird, with the companies in the project, technical advice
Company.
and assistance
planning and £1,000,000 in chamber costing £75,000, of The British Aluminium with many unique features, Says Kenneth Norris: "It closed circuit has an integral body. Instead This £1,000,000 is just including
estimule. television. conservative
Here tyres of having a chassis and building body round it, we have con- developed for speeds in Especially when you sider, that 68, British com excess of 500 miles an hour combined them in a single and panies have combined their could be tested.
a
Only on Pan Am from Hong Kong...
One fascinating feature of the Instrumentation is a combined accelerometer and speedometer, the reading, of which appear body 10
Campbell, 36 he
locks
bonded between alloy shoets. nitch more powerful structure.
We decided on alumbum
JETS ON EVERY FLIGHT
ΤΟ
TO TOKYO...5 flights every week!
TO
EUROPE...
6 flights every week via Bangkok and
the Middle East...
TO THE U.S.A....a choice of 3
transpacific jet routes: via Tokyo and Honolulu;
via Tokyo and the Great Circle; via Manila and Honolulu
TO MANILA... with jet connections
to Saigon, Singapore and Djakarta
through the windshield, as if 100 yards ahead of the car. projected on track surface
Campbell will not need, there- fore, to mone his eyes, or to
change their focus.
A
Retractable air brakes
イ
UTAH SALT FLATS
U.S.A
Here in
Utah
we're all tensed
up!
Drawing by Roy Castle
"With luck, he'll add another 15 to 20 miles an hour to the record but leave the highest speeds for later," Bryan Coopan told me,
speed
To start the car Campbell will accelerate the engine, to a pro- determined compressor with the brakes full.on. Than the brakes are released and the
forward, icapa
stondly bufiding up to maximum speed' over the first seven miles of the straightway at which point tha Airasured mile begins.
The inal seven, miles are requirest to bring the car to a hall.
"Rutes require that the car is run euch way over the messured mile within one hour and the average taken.
Sheltered
Campbell has a number of rivals, One, an American named Micky Thompson, is standing by now walking for the wind to drop before making attempt. His highest speed so tur is 307 miles an hour.
Already the television and· newšreel cameramen are moving Into nearby Wendover to disa squalls the pale blue car as it fashoj across the over the burning desert on its
rat testing rios.
from PETER HOPKIRK Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah,
ANGEROUS
Dicking
desert and gaping cracks in the thirsty, 15-mile straight- Donald way may delay Campbell's
Fificen-foot-high towers have been built for them alongside the track. Special. cable lines have been laid on for reportera,
Bluebird herself is shollered from the sun's devastating rays in a hanger at a friendly U.S Air Force base near by, 1.
She arrived by trailer Sunday after being transported nearly 3,000 Titles merosa America on trailer driven by young Baptist minister. And
They undertook the manufac- ture of the
complute structure, and the installation of the engine, transmission und brake unlis, and all other com- ponents supplied by the various The desigra of the body is original and unorthodox.
It is made of light alloys
Throughout, be will be in the and
strength of
bid to shatter the touch with his team by radio- structure is derived main beams, which run
from four telephone, Pye have built into the world land speed record from one of the wheel fairings in his £1,000,000 car Blue- end to end. They consist of receives and transmitter which bird, aluminium
foil honeycomb is connected to
microphone and headphones in Campbell's This immensely strong form
oxygen musk, of construction is also used for
The new Bluebird can reason- the engine compartment, and cockpit bulkheads. The car has ably be described as a labora- both air brakes and disc brakes, tuy on wheels. Not only have
of research and an hydraulic lifting systent the months which will enable the wheels to testing of each component part badly be changed quickly between yielded much valuable informa- biggest worry is the wind,
tion which will ultimately bene- "It doesn't need much to stirring venture It everyday motorist, but topple a car at the sort of speed bolster Britain's prestige. a great deal of data will be Donald will be doing. It would obtained during the trial runs be sulcide to make an attempt of the car and on the final with these winds still blowing." record run.
a young A Jow weeks ago American driver was killed in this remote spot when his car
each run.
The tyres
"We are praying hard for Tain," 29-year-old Bryan Cooper, of Campbell's 28- #member man team, told me.
"It has been a baking hot
on
and summer here and the track is nearly five more tons of equip.. cracked, However, the ment is being brought in by road, rail and air to back this designed to
Eighty specially designed Dunlop tyres and 16 giant This will be particularly Dunlop wheels have been pro- useful to the petroleum selen- duced for Bluebird. The tyre, tists
of the British Petroleum began to somersault at 300 miles mounted on its wheel, stands Company, which has provided 4ft. 4in, high and the cross- all the fuel and lubricants for section only 7in.
the attempt.
Bluebird's tyres are smooth and have no tread pattern. The protective rubber covering over the casing is only one-fiftieth of an lach thick because, if this rubber were any thicker, centrl- fugal force would tear it off.
Bluebird will have Beven miles in which to pull up after reaching its maximum speed.
The hope
I
Wil Campbell snevred?
chances at assess his
75 per cent for and 25 per cent against
Campbell's men are all con- vinced that Bluebird can travel faster than any other car in existence.
1
Cobb's 13-year-old record. an hour during un attack on
"It might quite easily have been a gust of wind winch caused " said Cooper. WIE
TALKING
POINTS
these winds koop up we could What makes life worth well still be sitting here in a living? To be born with month's Ume. But we are hop- the gift of laughter, and ing they will drop and also for the sense that the world is a little rain to Improve the track surface."
The
Starting.
mad.
I
--SABATINI.,
politician
famous
The Bluebird, which looks And that the world record more like a space vehicle than was trying to save both kit will still be In British hands a racing cur, is designed to do faces. the when the record-breaking 500 miles an hour. But Comp-
Wille airflaps will be used to slow the ear to about 400 miles an hour Girling disc brakes will have the task of bringing cur from that speed, to rest In period at, Utah is over later bell has sald he is content to Go seconds.
this month.
do "four hundred plus,"
BARAN WAS SEEKING PEACE BEFORE
THE FIRST ATOM BOMB WAS DROPPED ELŐN HIROSHIMA, ACCORDING TO DOCUMENTS
JUST LEAKED TO THE U.5. PRESS.
-JOHN GUNTHER,
London Expreza Service),
PAN AMERICI
Throughout the Pacific and 'round the world,
Pan Am offers you more jets to more places than any other airline!
For reservations, call your friendly Travel Agent or Pan Americans
Alexandra House, Hong Kong. Tol: 87031
Paninaula Hótel at Kowloon. Tel: 04008
非
PAN AM
WORLD'S MOST EXPERIENCED AIRLINE.
“DON'T YOU SEE,
MD OUT