Bluebird arriving in Scotland for test runs

Donald Campbell's Blubird jet boat will be arriving in Glasgow and the west today for it's first test runs on water since the infamous crash in 1967.

The team who found the boat on the bottom of Coniston Water and restored it to working order are going to be based at Loch Fad on the Isle of Bute for the next two weeks.

45 year-old Campbell was killed when Bluebird - travelling at more than 300mph - flipped and disintegrated as he was trying to break his own water speed record of 276mph.

Bill Smith is the leader of the team which salvaged it from the lake in 2001 and has been working on the restoration on Tyneside.

He commented: "It’s half a century since anyone put her in the water then got her back out again. Or put fuel in and started the engine whilst afloat. No one knows how she handles or the best way to jump out in a hurry if needs-be. We need to work all these things out so the name of the game is crew training"

"Hopefully we'll get through the steps quite quicky and efficiently - we're a good team - and then we can get the boat up to some interesting speeds - for display only!

"She's nothing left to prove and we don't have enough water to go very fast but a 2 ton jet-powered boat is quite a fearsome thing to see in operation

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