The History of the World Water Speed Record

In the second episode of 5 Minute History, we take a look at the history of what has been described as the most dangerous motorsport in the world - The History of the World Water Speed Record.
Website: www.5minutehistory.com
Podcast: www.5minutehistory.com/youtube
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[@goatslunch6991]

Ken Died a week ago of natural causes. RIP. Built the boat himself without the aid of a computer. In his back yard. over 40 years later no one has come close and lives have sadly been lost trying.

[@zztop7306]

Ken was and still is a legend. The most deadly high speed record still stands even after many years of technology advancements. At the end of the day you still need balls of steel and a belief in yourself to strap yourself into something as dangerous as a high soled boat.

[@SydneySewerat]

And built in his backyard about 1km from where I live in Sydney....and he used a jet engine donated from the Royal Australian Air Force.

[@goatslunch6991]

@@SydneySewerat hehehe "donated" hehehe. They said they donated it to him after they couldnt explain how a F111 ebgine found its way to his house. Legend,

[@geoffreypiltz271]

There have been two attempts since 1978 which you did not mention. Both ended in disaster and death.

[@chadroeder]

The audio did me head in, m8

[@MrOlgrumpy]

I hope you were able to fix the audio problem

[@SpaceLord2025]

my dad's boat. "The Pink Panther" was 200mph unblown gas hydroplane. sanger harris hull. prop driven never lost a race for 8 years and hold's the record from 70-74 1/4 mile in 8.3 seconds. all done under the southern drag boat association!!!

[@henrychubbs2823]

Very informative. What's with the electronic stuttering in the dialog?

[@stephenmorris3696]

yes i found that annoying as hell, but it was a well put together interesting clip.

[@sidecarbod1441]

I also, I also found it very annoying, annoying.

[@JamesVandevanter]

Great history, lousy auto-bot sound.

[@davidfellows8714]

Error at 5:00. Jet engines did not exist in1939.

[@fennerwallace5823]

I Think Germany Had them in 1937 but it was brand new technology

[@tomnewham1269]

Ken Warby's son Dave is planning on breaking his fathers record and are planning on doing some test runs in November 2023.

[@stevenleek1254]

is that an echo I hear?

[@simontaylor2319]

Many thanks, fascinating. Does the boat have to be in the water or can it hover just avove?

[@garycarbonneau499]

To be a boat it has to be touching the water....or it's an aircraft. Well that's the rules in boat racing. My drag boat rides on one blade of the propeller.

[@tedsmith6137]

At 5:00 you state Campbell set a record of 141 MPH in 1939 after removing the jet engine and replacing it with a piston engine. The date and speed are true but the statement about the jet engine is not as jet power was not even tried till after WW2.

[@joebone3151]

It existed just not massively used.

[@Apis4]

The first patent for a Gas Turbine engine was issued in 1791. In 1903, Norwegian Aegidius Elling made the first Gas Turbine engine which could produce power excess to running its components. The first working Pulse Jet was demonstrated by Viktor Karamodiv in 1907. By 1928 Frank Whittle had begun working on the aeronautical jet engine, followed by Hans Von Ohain in Germany in 1934, both had working prototypes running by 1937, Whittle in April, Ohain in September. By 1939, Earnst Heinkel had designed and flight tested a working jet powered fighter. During this entire period between 1900 and 1940, numerous other engineers had come up with solutions to all kinds of problems facing these engines, and it is entirely possible Campbell tried a rudimentary jet engine of some kind, such as a motorjet. Is it true? I am not sure. But Jet Engines were experimented with decades before WWII, even WWI.

[@LungsMcGee]

@@Apis4 And I'm pretty sure people have been lighting farts since fire was discovered. RIP Ken Warby, bloody legend.

[@stuartkeen5234]

Malcombe Campbell replaced the piston engine with the jet and it did not work and the war put pay to any further attempts thus it wasn’t until his son Donald Campbell got hold of the boat in the very early 1950’s did he revert the boat back to piston engine. Sadly the Americans pushed the record up into the 170mph range and despite modifications to K4 to turn her into a prop rider to gain more speed she then had a mechanical malfunction and tore a hole in herself and had to be broken up on the shores of lake Coniston , that’s when Donald Campbell then commissioned Ken and Lew Norris to design K7 around the Beryl jet engine.

[@paulmoir4452]

Not remotely important to the subject, but the pronunciation is "Bradoor". Like the kids say, "Brah!" followed without hesitation by the entry into a room.

[@nikolaileon6095]

Would you mind if I used your 5 minute water speed record video on my website, please advise, thank you.

[@5minutehistory864]

Hi - sure, feel free to do so using the embed code or link provided by KZbin.

[@keybawd4023]

No meantion of John Cobb?

[@Dragonblaster1]

Cobb never broke the water speed record.

[@keybawd4023]

@@Dragonblaster1 I didn't say John Cobb did broke the record - but the video is "The History of .." And I would have thought that John Cobb fatal attempt was as significant historically as tne other failed attemps shown in the video. But thanks for your statement - a bit of pedantry is always welcome.

[@Dragonblaster1]

All the other people in the video broke the WSR at least once.

[@myblacklab7]

@@Dragonblaster1 And fatal attempts like that of John Cobb go far to explain why no one has broken the record for decades.

[@MartinWillett]

The Campbell era will not be over until the record is officially higher than Donald's err, terminal velocity, by 10% or more.

[@leewilliams2094]

The rules only require an increased speed of 1% to make the record official. The same as for land speed record cars.

[@MartinWillett]

@@leewilliams2094 Donald's terminal speed did not officially break his own record. That mark will still hang over the whole enterprise until someone puts the official record significantly higher.

[@myblacklab7]

Contenders: We're announcing an intention to break the record! Contenders five years later: Uhm, yeah, that's too dangerous - never mind.

[@joebone3151]

That is what happens when. You let the world get to fucking set on safety. Safety is not better you can't be a true racer without that 50/50 chance if coming back alive. Where more pussy now more then ever and we have longer lives.

[@myblacklab7]

@@joebone3151 I generally agree with you. An obsession with safety makes life suck for everyone except the wussiest among us. However, if there's a 50% chance of dying while attempting to do something, I have to admit that in that context I'm a total wuss myself. I might take that risk to prevent a nuclear war, but not to break a speed record.

[@thethirdman225]

@@joebone3151 You do it then.

[@ImCxoi]

I think this channel could be pretty big one day, just add some humor to it doesn't feel like a lecture

[@upSettTV]

Cat Dragon not everything has to be humorous, many others enjoy a serious narration on a topic like this, over constantly cracking jokes. Also, this is probably the worst video to post your comment on, seeing as almost everyone who attempted this died.

[@ImCxoi]

cool

[@mjd4174]

Not with still picture stories. Yawn.

[@richierich2534]

I can listen to an english narrator for hours but can't do 2 minutes of an American narrator

[@theadventuresofshellyandfr5618]

No mention of Craig Arfons smh approx 335mph not official because he crashed. God speed.

[@Dragonblaster1]

He never made a return run.

[@theadventuresofshellyandfr5618]

@@Dragonblaster1 Yes but he still died trying

[@myblacklab7]

Do you know if that's the fastest speed ever obtained? It seems like there is an over-focus on fastest average speed, instead of fastest speed obtained. I'm more interested in the highest speed reached on the run than the average speed of the run.

[@theadventuresofshellyandfr5618]

@@myblacklab7 it very well could have been Craig’s run. That was the fastest on water! Idk. God speed for Craig.

[@myblacklab7]

@@theadventuresofshellyandfr5618 So strange that no one mentions the fastest speeds reached during the runs. Maybe it wasn't measured? Yes it's tragic that so many lives have been lost - I would not want anyone I know to try to break that record, except Earl, but he's a total jerk.

[@tedsmith6137]

If you are going to narrate the video, get rid of the captions. One or the other not both, otherwise you sound like you are talking to people who cannot read for themselves.

[@choppe8228]

I mean… there are blind and deaf people in the world

[@jalbert222]

Nicely done video. Informative. And no music :) Thank you! personally, I think that setting records with jet propulsion is kind of silly AND stupidly dangerous. Without a propeller or impeller, then it really is not a boat, just an airplane lacking wings, waiting to go airborne and kill the driver.

[@joebone3151]

False anything at those speeds can do that hell theirs plenty of jet powered commercial and civilian boats

[@peterwarby3502]

Obviously! You have no clue what you are talking about, there is no pis

[@peterwarby3502]

There is no piston engine that can compete with a jet and a jet is a lot cheaper

[@TomEarley]

How has the channel not taken off!? 50 subscribers? Could easily be 50million!

[@mjd4174]

Because there is no video action and in the KZbin world, that is essentially boring! The info is great though.

[@hoagielamp6543]

He says things that are provably false and barely tells people more than wikipedia. Combine that with bad mixing/editing and it's no surprise this channel hasn't taken off.

[@kevinschmidt5881]

While I wholeheartedly agree with the concept (only 5 minutes 👍,interesting 👍, etc. ) ; buddy has some improvements to make. Fact check & and proofread a few more times before making the video. Fix the electronic stuttering in the narration. He's SOOOOO close to making it big; but shouldn't release it until it's actually finished. Rushed work shows.

[@Choober65]

If anyone wants to sponsor me to put TWO RB199's in a boat, then I'll show you how fast a boat can REALLY go.