waterspeed record

[Dan Ellison]

Great site,

[stonebreaker]

I LOVE speed. If you were located in St Louis I'd volunteer to help in the shop. For nothing.

[stonebreaker]

Go for it. And if you need help, check out some of the hotrodding forums. There are gearheads aplenty out there who would love to help out on a project like this, even if you couldn't afford to pay them. Maybe you could get some students from a local University to help out? Maybe the University might be willing to donate some computer time, if they have an aeronautical engineering department?

[Vega]

Originally Posted by Dan Ellison

I already own the molds for my own designed boat.

Can we see the designs? I would love to take a look

Good luck for your project and please, keep us posted .

[Tim B]

Just remember what you're dealing with, and the people it's claimed in the past.

At high speeds, things on water happen VERY fast.

I suggest you have a look at Campbell's Bluebird. there's a lot that can be learnt from that.

Tim B.

[Tim B]

I'm just saying, remember what you're dealing with. I know how easy it is to get wrapped up in a design and miss important features. On a high-speed boat, everything is absolutely critical, and there is no room for error.

I wish you luck,

Tim B.

[stonebreaker]

Dan,

Are you planning on scaling the boat up in size? How are you planning on fitting a enough power to go 500 mph onto that little boat? Rockets?

[Frosty]

Im sure we are all well aware that one of the difficulties is keeping the thing on the water and not to take off.

When then does it become a plane, Is there some rules on how much wing you can have and how much weight of the thing is held up from water as opposed to air.

If there are no such rules then why not go and get a used F16 from the Military store and put some floats on it. This wouldnt take more than a morning and the speed trial could be done in the afternoon.

500 MPh is pretty slow in the aviation world.

Who and with what has the speed record now?

[Frosty]

I see that my slight attempt at sarcasm was not appreciated--sorry

However I would still like to know who and with what holds the speed record to date, and Is there any rules to this?

[stonebreaker]

Huh, I just looked up Ken Warby's record. For some reason, I had it in my mind that he ran 417 mph, but he actually "only" ran 318. Why I had it in my mind he ran 99 mph faster than he actually did, and not an even 100, I have no idea. I must be getting senile.

All of a sudden, your goal seems emminently reachable. And going with a lighter turbine or jet engine over the big block with a supercharger on it, seems like it would move the c/g forward somewhat, which should make the boat more stable, right?

[Frosty]

I just googled it --easier, 316.60.mph Australia.

A British attempt called Quick silver will be going for it in 2008 with 25,000 hp.
The Brits will piss it, there good at this sort of thing. Proper RR engines of course.

[lohring]

For those who don't know Dan, he once desgned and built the most desirable gasoline powered radio controlled hydros. I still have one from the late 1990s. I've seen pictures of his drag boats on top fuel crankshaft builder Henry Velaso's shop wall. He understands the problems, and has been slowly working up toward this record for years.

Good luck.

Lohring Miller

[Jimboat]

Dan - sounds like an exciting project. I will watch your progress with interest.

[Verytricky]

DRAGBOATS.COM is infected with a VIRUS and attempts to install the virus onto your computer.

DO NOT VISIT dragboats.com untill they have resolved this issue!!!

[stonebreaker]

No, he's right, the site attempts to install something. I don't think it's a virus, I think it's more like adware or spyware. You wouldn't get a warning unless you have anti-virus software running on your computer.