Lee Taylor's Discovery II rocket boat

Patterned after The Blue Flame via the Budweiser car, Lee Taylor's Discovery II rocket boat was one of the most ambitious and revolutionary projects in the history of record breaking. The great irony of this boat is today it is almost forgotten, even though it remains the last attempt with a rocket vehicle (air, land, or water) on a major world speed record.

 

Attachments

Let's see if the attachments upload this time.

 

Oh well - there are lots of ambitious and revolutionary ideas that dont work. Hold on - the uploaded article isnt even a boat!! Whats it doing on this site

 

If that was a joke it's a bad one.

The idea Discovery II wasn't a boat is moronic and narrow minded.

Saying it didn't work with no knowledge whatsoever of the conditions under which it crashed is idiotic.

 

Rwatson, apart from the extreme language he uses when his buttons are pushed, I have to agree with RF on this one. He's recently posted a few "memorabilia" of past water speed record runs, including a moving YouTube edit of Donald Campbell's fatal last run set to the memorial song composed in his honor.

Lee Taylor was a legitimate record holder, having successfully broken Campbell's record by more than 10 mph, holding the record for 11 years before Ken Warby, with the official support of the Australian Air Force, set the current record. Taylor died in much the same way as Campbell, the result of his boat hitting an unexpected small wave at more than 270 mph.

The fact that Warby's record has stood for almost 30 years indicates the extreme challenge of going more than 300 mph on water. I've only skimmed some of the engineering literature on the subject, but the combination of aero- and hydro- dynamic forces, maintaining stability a few inches above the water without either flying higher or pitching down more than a degree or two, controlling a machine that is simultaneously moving through two fluids, one of which is 800 times more dense than the other, behaving like a solid at those speeds, and whose surface characteristics can change from moment to moment, .... I can see why you might say they aren't boats, but, like all hydroplanes, they are.

RF, thanks for posting those reminders of past record runs. I know there are a few groups hoping that CAD and computerized simulations will enable them to overcome the challenges of extreme speed hydroplanes and raise the record. I wish them all the best.

 

I may stand corrected on this, but I'm pretty sure Warby had pretty much no support from anyone. He built his boat in his back yard - which makes the achiebvement even more amazing. I think he's doing so again for another attempt at breaking his own record

 

Warby

Warby's secret weapon was Dr. Bob Apathy (I'm not making up that last name). Apathy did some wind tunnel testing on a scale model of Warby's boat and advised him to relocate the engine farther forward as well as coming up with the idea for the T-tail. Between Warby's practical experience and Apathy's academic background they made a winning combination.

 

I'm surprised he was able to keep him motivated



Jimbo

 

Lee Taylor

The most informed theories about why Lee Taylor's rocket boat crashed centered around the skeg, the rudder and going too fast for the water conditions. A conventional three-point hydroplane running under those conditions would probably have blown over a long time before it got through the kilo.

 

Ken himself has stated that his record was set after his engine was rebuilt by the RAAF jet engine maintenance depot. (One story says that what actuallly happened is that his "less than perfect" engine was swapped for a new one, along with some nameplate swapping, but that's never been verified.) David Appleby, Warby's current crew chief, was the RAAF officer who arranged for the rebuilding. He was able to get the brass to allow RAAF personnel to do the work.

Appleby's and Apathy's work, and the wind tunnel testing donated, should take nothing away from Ken Warby. He did the original design for the record setting boat himself, and set one earlier record with a used jet engine worked on by amateurs. The official support gave him a better engine, but the design changes were minor tweaks; he had learned from Campbell and Taylor, and his basic design was sound.

 

Warby's boat was very similer to Taylor's boat (hustler) that held the record Before warby broke it.

 

Not a safe way to go fast.

Few are.

 

Warby

Those two boats were very similar. Taylor's Hustler used the Westinghouse J-46 while Warby's boat was powered by the lighter less powerful Westinghouse J-34. Taylor was in a laydown seating position, giving air a straight shot into the engine, while Warby sat much more upright. Warby's boat was even more similar in external appearance to Taylor's Discovery I J-79 boat. The hull for Discovery I was completed, but I don't think the boat ever ran.

 

The cause of death of Campbell and Taylor appears to have been instability caused by waves encountered at extremely high speed. I have not found any serious criticism of any of these designs, but both Campbell's and Taylor's final runs were last minute decisions. Emphasizing what Longliner said, it's inherently unsafe. Water conditions seem to be be more important than small design tweaks.

 

Water conditions

Amen to that.