Bluebird returns to Coniston 59 years after Campbell’s fatal crash

Donald Campbell’s restored Bluebird has been fired up on Coniston Water for the first time since the 1967 crash that killed him, with thousands watching from the lakeside

Donald Campbell’s Bluebird returned to Coniston Water for the first time since the speed ace was killed there almost 60 years ago.

The jet-powered K7 was lowered into the lake on Monday before its engine was fired up to cheers and applause from thousands of spectators gathered on the shoreline.

Campbell died on 4 January 1967 when Bluebird somersaulted as he tried to push his world water speed record beyond 300mph.

Yesterday afternoon, 59 years later after his death, the restored hydroplane was back on the water as part of a week-long series of test runs marking the build-up to the 70th anniversary of Campbell’s first record on Coniston in September 1956.

Australian Dave Warby, son of the late Ken Warby MBE who set the current water speed record of 317.59mph (511.11 km/h) in 1978, will be at its controls.

Campbell’s teddy bear mascot, Mr Whoppit, will be with him in the cockpit.

Donald’s nephew Don Wales told the BBC that the K7’s return to the water had been deeply emotional.

He said: “What a day. To see the boat on the lake again, it’s utterly magnificent.

“You can feel the love and the warmth of people here wanting to see it.

“We’ve got a few thousand people here today, it’s glorious at Coniston.

“As soon as it touched the water, there was a tear in my eye. It really was quite a moment and the minute’s silence was very fitting.

“Without the restoration team and a lot of other people we wouldn’t be here today.”

Bluebird’s return comes after a long and at times bitter saga over its recovery, restoration and future.

The wreck was raised from Coniston Water in 2001 after more than 30 years on the lake bed, then rebuilt under the Bluebird Project led by engineer Bill Smith.

It last ran in 2018 on the Isle of Bute before eventually being handed to Coniston’s Ruskin Museum two years ago.

The museum, which now owns the craft and displays it in a dedicated wing, says recent months have seen a new engineering team fit a replacement engine and carry out work on Bluebird’s electrical and hydraulic systems.

Chairman Jeff Carroll said the latest return to Coniston marked the “next chapter” in the boat’s story, while paying tribute to Smith and his team for bringing it back.

Campbell set seven water speed world records in Bluebird, including four on Coniston Water between 1955 and 1964.

He also set a land speed world record in 1964, becoming the only man to hold both records in the same year.

READ MORE: I quit London’s rat race to restore a huge crumbling estate in the Lake District. Deborah Lyon left London in search of space and solitude. What she found was a wrecked Victorian estate, a new livelihood in hospitality, and the freedom to pursue her first love: writing. 

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_{Main image: The rebuilt Bluebird K7 running at speed in planing mode on Loch Fad during its 2018 trials on the Isle of Bute. Picture: TheBluebirdProject/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.}