September to December 2001

September to December 2001

13th September 2001

Donald is finally at rest in the cemetery in Coniston. Of course the lake did its best to thwart us as it does whenever we get one over on it. As soon as proceedings got underway, the wind whistled up to full fury and the rain lashed down with it. It made no difference.

The three divers, Graham, Carl and myself organised ourselves with Donald's' nephews, Don, PJ and Malcolm into a set of pallbearers. You get no training at this job, you just get thrown in at the deep end, it's not like you get a pamphlet or a book on pallbearing for beginners! They are a really great bunch of guys, first time we've really met any of them properly. It was the blind leading the blind, quite literally as for some reason, the undertaker put Beanz and Malcolm at the front of the coffin and they both wear glasses! They were unable to see in about half a minute and with one hand firmly grasping the box, there was no way that they could clean their glasses.

None of us had ever been pallbearers before so under the guidance of the undertaker we had a little practice run before taking Donald down the jetty and placing him aboard Gordon's boat. We tripped over each others feet, stopped when we should have gone and went when we should have stopped. Finally, PJ and I ended up laughing hysterically when he pointed out that Uncle Donald was probably laughing at us!

Out on the lake, it just got worse, the wind tried to rip the flag off the coffin, the coffin itself constantly threatened to slither off its stand onto the floor and we managed to take a couple of decent waves over the top and soak everyone for good measure but we stuck with it and it went OK. By the time we got ashore after that little trip we were wringing, we knew every bagpipe tune in Scotland and we were moderately expert pallbearers. Getting Donald off the boat, along the jetty and into a horse drawn hearse was straightforward. Donald was probably still having a good old laugh at us and we were having a laugh at him laughing at us.

It was incredible that literally hundreds of people came out in the lashing rain to see him go by. All the way up the road from the lake was just a moving sea of umbrellas, one of the most touching tributes was two rows of freezing soggy school kids who'd obviously been standing in the rain for a while waving equally wet flags that they'd made in the classroom. We all choked up at the sight of them but there was so much water about that a few tears were lost amongst it. Tonia and Gina walked behind us sharing an umbrella. It was so good to see them both united.

At the Church, we dripped water all the way up the aisle, hundreds of eyes followed our slow progress as the music played, we placed Donald at the front of the church on a couple of trestles. He was in a narrow space and we were only good pallbearers in a straight line, we all quietly wondered how we were going to turn him round to get him out as he had to travel feet first everywhere.

There followed a beautiful service, the choir were magnificent, the hymns appropriate and Robbie's address was simply wonderful. I felt for Robbie as he stood up there choking with emotion, we sill had water running down our faces from the downpour, honest. He spoke of Donald and it was from the heart, he cracked a little on the last paragraph. Steve Hogarth from Marillion gave an equally emotional solo performance of "Out of This World", the song that started all this in the first place. He was terrified, performing in front of such a tiny audience at such a solemn occasion without even an applause by which to judge his performance but he was truly professional.

After the service, to our relief, the undertaker and his assistant turned the coffin around before we carried Donald back outside to where the downpour was waiting for us, there were also still hundreds of dripping people under their gaudy sea of umbrellas. We put him back in his hearse and set off for the cemetery, the brightly coloured procession followed. Every one of the pallbearers expressed their relief when we took Donald out of the hearse and put him on the grass. We'd managed to carry him all over town without dropping him or slipping in the water. Ropes were attached to the ends of the coffin and he was quietly lowered into the grave. Don and I folded the flag up bedsheet fashion and he gave it to Gina. The Vicar said his words and a handful of soil was scattered into the grave, clattering off the top of the coffin. "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes". After that, a few of us took the shovel and sent some soil cascading down into the hole. By now, there was a canopy of umbrellas packed so tightly together that it was like walking about under the shelter of some weird plant, if you avoided the stems it was possible to walk around under there without any rain getting you but it mattered little by this time. I was, without doubt wetter than I had ever been at any time during the project and that included the journeys to the bottom of the lake.

Dried out and wearing a new shirt, we arrived at the Windermere Motor Boat Club later that afternoon. It was a pleasant informal gathering and we spent a few hours drinking a beer or two and chatting to everyone. Tonia joined us at the bar and told us a few of Donald's favourite jokes. I asked whether we could put them on the website but she said no. Can't say I'm surprised mind you so I'd best not or I'll probably find Mr Mishcon chasing me! It was uproariously good fun though. I felt faintly guilty for having charged in amongst the Campbell family and turned everything on its head for them, only to have them accept us in the end and allow us to join them in their celebrating. There was a dinner later which I was unfortunately, unable to attend but Carl and his wife Vicky were there and it was as delightful as the rest of the day's events with Tonia making a moving speech. All of the divers and other team members were deeply honoured to be a part of proceedings. Particular thanks to Don, PJ and Malcolm for allowing three unknown divers to help them carry their uncle Donald on his last journey and for making us feel so welcome, to Gina and Marshall for everything, and Tonia for being so brutally honest. Everyone else too numerous to mention. It goes without saying that as soon as Donald had finished having the last laugh on us, the sun came out and shone all afternoon

Bill Smith
(Bluebird Project Team Leader)

Sorry no pictures but Bill left to begin his official duties and my camera was still locked in his car
Have been promised photos by a few people so as soon as I get them I'll post them here

Check out the speed record group on yahoo!

Speedrecordgroup@yahoogroups.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Speedrecordgroup


	All Photos by kind permission of Andy Griffin

I know it's been a few months since we did anything on the boat but it's all suddenly started moving again. In a nutshell, it's more or less been decided that K7 is just too gruesome and ugly in her present form to be displayed as she is. Gina just simply doesn't like the way she is and who can reasonably argue with that sentiment. That leaves only two options, either lock Bluebird away for a very long time or return the boat to her former splendour.

Towards this end, I've been working on just what it would take to put her back to new condition. At least I'm back on familiar territory with this. Over the past few months I've had a go at being a diver, salvage man, TV personality, forensic scientist, pathologist and a hundred other strange disciplines. Some of them went well and some I just got away with but that's what teamwork is all about and when we got stuck we went away and picked someone else's brain. At least this time I'm back to engineering and that's what I do best. However, as usual there are dozens of different skills required and one individual can't be everything at once. That's why we invited a couple of engineers to take a look at the boat with a view to telling us whether she has survived in good enough shape to allow an effective rebuild.

Peter Bauckham is an NDT (Non Destructive Testing) engineer who can perform fascinating things like Gamma radiography, his labs can produce high quality digital images of any portion of the spaceframe without having to drill holes in it or saw bits off. These images can be mailed to metallurgists or engineers anywhere. Using these techniques we can examine the steelwork in minute detail both inside and out to ensure that Bluebird is as good as new when she's repaired.

John Renwick is a retired consultant materials engineer who spent most of his working life with Marconi. John suddenly forgot all about his retirement and skipped up the workshop on his titanium hip so that he could get a look at K7. The breadth of his knowledge on materials is amazing. He took one look at the skin of the boat then explained its chemical composition and the heat treatment process that it undergoes.

Both of these highly professional Gentlemen have pledged their support to the rebuild project free of charge and that's only the start. Every company or individual so far approached has expressed a willingness to help that I wouldn't have dared to wish for.

Yesterday, there was a large gathering at the facility where K7 is currently housed, Gina and Don were there, representatives of the Ruskin Museum and Donnington were there, our engineers came over to answer any questions that may be raised an a whole afternoon of brainstorming took place followed by the inevitable feast of McDonalds. No firm decisions were made at the time but they will be forthcoming in the near future as all concerned have time to digest what was discussed. In the meantime, we will continue to investigate what is needed to get the boat back together, this includes going back to the lake for the rest of the forward spaceframe because, believe it or not, it's all in good enough shape to be restored. It broke into pieces but they are straight pieces that can be put back together. Both spars are good as the day they were made and almost all of the remaining skins can be made as good as new so we're looking at using virtually everything that's been salvaged with the exception of the engine. So far so good. More to come.

We've been trolling the world for Bluebird bits for the last couple of weeks, there are three main concerns. Spaceframe, body skins and machinery i.e., engine, instruments, hydraulics etc. etc.

The spaceframe is made of fairly ordinary steel and in that sense it may as well be a shopping trolley from the point of view of how we work on it. It's about a 40 ton steel (I haven't got the exact spec on it as yet) but it can be cut, repaired and welded with out much difficulty. Almost all of it is in first class condition and we have the facility to check it thoroughly as we proceed so no worries there. Both of the spars look OK, they'll need to be X rayed but they should be fine. Of course some of it is still in the lake so we'll need some divers in due course.

The outer aluminium skin is a bit more difficult, it'll all have to be fabricated by hand. It's a very labour intensive and costly process. There are only a handful of outfits that can carry out this sort of work to a sufficiently high standard and we're being visited by one of them, week after next. Take a look at www.Lynxmotors.co.uk. They build classic Jaguar cars from the ground up and many other aluminium bodied classic vehicles. Their Chairman and chief panel beater are coming for a look. We'll report on their visit in due course.

Machinery wise, we're not too badly off. The engine is scrap though some of the ancillaries may have survived as has the lube oil tank and most of Bill Vanryn's unique starting system. Here's a new bit of intelligence for the anoraks. Bluebird ran an Orpheus MK701. This engine is an uprated version of the MK101 which powered the Gnat trainer. The 701 engine powered the Gnat fighter and Britain never employed the Gnat as a fighter to the best of my knowledge. It was flown by the Finns and the Indians but not the Brits so where on Earth did Donald get his plane from?

Anyway, enough of the history lesson, the 701 engine was produced in fairly large numbers, indeed Donald's engine was No 711 and both the Indians and the Finns have only recently taken their Gnats out of service. As well as all these aircraft, there are a fair number of Gnat fighters (about 30 I believe) in aircraft museums around the UK and as they are usually hard up for cash and the planes will never fly again, I'm quite sure that getting a vanload of Gnat fighter bits shouldn't be too difficult or expensive. See,,,, this job isn't as difficult as it looks.

We're still working full speed ahead on plans to rebuild K7. This week we got the drawing for the spaceframe from Ken. He can't wait to see his creation returned to working order.

We've discovered from the drawing that the spaceframe is actually two halves which are joined together just behind the rear spar. This means that we can cut the joints and split the frame.

What this means is that the restoration process can be speeded up. We can lift the front section into another workshop and set it up to be rebuilt. We have virtually all of it, there are a couple of bits missing but they not only came from an area of the cockpit that suffered massive damage, they are also on the bottom of the lake assuming that the Navy didn't snaffle them so we're going to rebuild those bits (the fact that we promised Gina that we wouldn't dive in the lake again and she's holding us to it doesn't help). There is a curved section of 2 inch box section 60 ton steel right at the nose of the boat, it needs to be replaced but it's such a tight bend that all the tube forming companies I've so far showed it to have scratched their heads over it. I might have to go back to Accles and Pollock.

With the front of the frame removed it can also be transported to a facility where it's new panels can be fabricated but whilst this is going on, we'll still have the main hull at this end where we can sort out the steering, water brake, engine installation etc. etc. If all goes according to plan we should then be able to jig the two halves back together and weld up the joints again, then the panel people can do their final fix on the skins.

We're also pretty close to getting an engine for the boat but more of that in the next few days.

For those of you who missed it on TV last night, it's official. We're going to rebuild Bluebird to her former fire breathing glory. Whether she's ever used in anger again is irrelevant but at least she'll be as good as new.

There was another big meeting this week up here on Tyneside, we are assembling a team and a few more potential helpers came along to meet everyone. Our engineers, Peter and John came over to meet with the guys from Lynx Motors (both of whom are called John) and talk about metal composition, rivets etc. One thing that the Lynx folks agreed on was that there's nothing particularly difficult about restoring all of Bluebird's body skins to original condition. Easy for them to say, but that's why we are building a team. Also along for a look was Michael Ware of the National Motor Museum. He spent the day considering the ethics of restoration and if I remember correctly, he said on the news that Bluebird must be restored. Everyone, without exception, who has visited the wreck as it is today agrees that there's no way she can be displayed in that mangled condition.

We've been experimenting with obtaining sponsorship for the project and we've been able to obtain the services of a pair of brilliant web designers to produce graphics. Take a look at www.themedialounge.com/bluebird2002 but don't all start screaming at us, it was just an idea. Anyway, our initial approaches to the Heritage Lottery Fund have been very encouraging.

From left to right
John and Peter From Argos NDT, John from Lynx Motors, Bill Smith Snr, Alain, Gina and Beanz

Inevitably, the idea of rebuilding the boat isn't sitting well with some people and to be honest I wasn't in favour of it to begin with but what other choice is there? She's certainly not suitable to go on public display as she is and no amount of cleaning her with toothbrushes is going to detract from the horror of all that twisted metal so what do we do? We could put her back in the lake but she'll certainly not be safe in there, she could be locked away out of sight for a very long time but then she would benefit no one. Answers on a post card......

We took delivery of a Bristol Orpheus this week. This engine was used as a training aid for aspiring jet engine fitters and since it was retired from that role, it's been sitting in the middle of a nettle patch. Fortunately its covers were fitted to the weather hasn't been able to get inside. Several crisp packets (why do I always think of our ROV pilot when I see crisp packets??)and a lump of concrete had managed somehow to find their way in there though, so we carefully pulled them out before someone tried to turn the engine over. Next we pulled the lid off to check the conditions of the compressor blades and the stators. There are seven compressor stages (moving blades) with a row of stators (non moving blades) between each of them.

There was some condensation in there which had resulted in some mild surface corrosion but the blades are all razor sharp and in good order so with a bit of cleaning up we'll have a first class compressor. The power turbine at the other end is also in good condition but the rear bearing has rusted and will have to be replaced. We're collecting a second engine next week to get some bits and bobs off it and then we'll have a go at getting the beast to run. The neighbours will be delighted I'm sure but at least it'll keep the cats out of the garden.

We took delivery of our second Orpheus today, it's a bit cruddy but it came with lots of bits that we didn't have, a jetpipe for example and a fuel control unit. We've been talking to Rolls Royce about getting their engineers to have a look at it. Like everyone else in the airline business, they're suffering a bit at the moment and some people are losing their jobs unfortunately so a daft Geordie jumping up and down wanting his engine rebuilt isn't high on their list of important things to deal with. Despite all that, they are being extremely helpful so we'll have to wait and see.

Most of the planning is complete for the engineering side of things, we have a good plan to return the spaceframe back to original after the lower hull skins have been removed. Good old Ken is helping out. We learned that there was a certain amount of corrosion in the frame when it was examined by the RAF in 1966. I can't imagine that it's got any better, they'd lost 25% of the strength then. What we thought would be a good cure, is rather than cutting bits out and scrapping them, we could get Ken to design some new bits into the frame and have them properly built in. That way we can preserve the corroded bits, add some new bits to Kens' design and put back all the original strength. It all rather depends on the extent of the problem, if it's not too bad we will just repair it.

There are several companies who can restore the bodywork, we've already had a couple of useful meetings with Lynx Motors, there are some aircraft restoration folks coming over soon to give us their opinion, we'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, we have an enthusiastic contact with the Heritage Lottery Fund who is keeping us on the straight and narrow as we pick our way through their application procedure. More soon.

We disemboweled the second Orpheus this afternoon, Orpheus number 1, the engine that we obtained first, is to form the basis of our rebuilt power plant. It's got a good compressor, gearbox and combustion chamber. However, it's turbine has been out in the weather and its suffered a bit as a result. Orpheus number 2 has a good turbine and back bearing. It also has all the necessary nuts, bolts and fiddly stuff that holds it all together. As No1 was used as a training aid, and as it had about 20 million bolts holding it together in true Bluebird fashion, it's not surprising that all the bolts have gone missing.

No2 also came with a jetpipe, fuel pump, fuel lines and a fuel control unit, We're still stuck for a starter (air starter preferably) so if someone out there can get one for us we'd be grateful. Tomorrow hopefully, we'll build the power turbine assembly from No2 onto the compressor of No1 and we'll have a good core engine.

These engines are a very simple affair, all they do is slurp in air at the front and compress it in stages past rows of smaller and smaller blades. The compressed air is then shoved into the combustion chamber. In there is a set of "cans" which are cylindrical things with holes in the sides. Fuel is blasted into one end of these cans where it atomises in the compressed air. The whole affair is then set on fire and it burns furiously producing a massive volume of hot expanding gas. It can't go forward because the compressor is cramming more air in that way so it takes the path of least resistance and screams out the back end instead. On its way out it meets the power turbine and in passing over the turbine, the hot gas spins it round like a big windmill. The power turbine is at the other end of the same shaft on which the compressor runs and as the name implies, the power turbine provides the power to turn the compressor. As long as there's fuel in there and a fire going on, the machine will sustain itself. The power turbine only extracts enough energy from the expanding gases to drive the compressor, it then thunders down the jetpipe which serves the same purpose as the nozzle on the end of your garden hose. Take the nozzle off the hose and the water just runs out of the end but with the nozzle fitted you can harness the energy much more effectively to wash the car, water the plants or accelerate your jet hydroplane to scary speeds. Check in tomorrow to see how the build went.

Everything ticking along nicely at this end though there's not much more that can be achieved this year. Our dialogue with the HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) has produced some very encouraging noises from their end of the table and we are currently in the process of preparing a plan for submission.

We've been offered help in doing this by Deloitte & Touche who've done a lot of lottery stuff in our area so when I've assembled the techie stuff and finished the costings, they are going to take care of the small print for us. In actual fact, there is nothing stopping us from diving into this rebuild except for the lack of money. This may on the face of it appear to be obvious, but a few weeks ago we would have been unable to make a start even if we'd had a million quid in the bank.

For example, Bluebird's body skins were made of the famous Birmabright, produced by Birmetals. Did anyone know, however, that there were at least 4 grades of Birmabright, and Ken managed to use them all in the construction of the boat. Some grades are easy to form into complex curves but are a relatively soft material whereas others don't like being formed but are much stronger. Now consider that much of Bluebird's bodywork formed what is called a stressed skin, meaning that it was part of the structure and it helped to bear the loads to which the craft was subjected and some of the bodywork was only aerodynamic fairing. It becomes clear that you can't just go building it out of any old aluminium.

Birmabright is no longer available and Birmetals are no more, Ken used every grade there was in all different places and the stuff isn't available anyway. We called a diving pal of ours, Greg Buxton. Greg works for a company called Thyssen Garfield who buy, sell and otherwise work with massive quantities of aluminium. Greg has been running a project for the last few years to try and locate a wreck in the Black Sea called the Struma. The Struma was carrying almost a thousand Jewish refugees, she'd been chased from Palestine which was under British command at the time so they'd all gone to Turkey, the Turkish authorities didn't want them either so after several weeks the authorities towed the Struma, which by now had no engine, out to sea and cut it adrift. It was sent to the bottom by a submarine shortly after, there was only one survivor and amongst those lost were Greg's grandparents.

Anyway, back to the tale. Greg didn't know what Birmabright was made of so he put us onto another diver who works for Aston Martin, they use similar alloys for skinning their cars and eventually I received an e-mail listing the various grades of Birmabright alongside their modern equivalents.

Greg then did a magnificent job of persuading Alcan to supply all the material we need FOC. All I have to do now is go to Bournemouth for a long meeting with Ken in order to find out how much of what material need though he's warned me that there are no fewer than 26 materials on the list for the floats alone! Like I said, even with a million quid in the bank, etc.

Take a look at www.airframes.co.uk This company builds Spitfires to flying condition, some of their people also worked on Thrust II, they are another of the companies that I'm speaking to regarding forming Bluebird's new body. Closer to home, we're still working on the engine. We're still hopeful that Rolls Royce will help us bring it to the peak of health but first we must assemble a complete engine for them to work with. This week we moved the engine out to a workshop where we can make a proper start on getting it built. We finished cleaning the compressor out and got all the rear bearing stuff ready to go. Our old friend Mr. Novie Dzanorak very kindly provided us with an instruction manual for the engine so we were at last able to say things like.....

and decide that it wasn't really necessary to connect the cockpit pressurisation hose to anything. We've tracked down an air starter so when we get that fitted we'll be able to have hours of fun making jet engine like noises in the workshop.

Next big job is to get the old engine out of the boat because there's still a lot of mud under the heat shielding from the old Beryl engine and we'd like to save the heat shielding if at all possible.

The last diary entry in what has proved to be an action packed year, I remember swapping e-mail's with Dean Cox last year, he was saying that he'd set up his Across the Lake website and added a page for exciting news. Unfortunately there was nothing happening so he was thinking of deleting it. I advised him to wait a bit longer.

We've spent Boxing day building our Orpheus, all the back bearing assembly is now in place and the engine spins beautifully with no noise from its bearings. We connected an air powered drill to the nose end and spun the compressor up to about 2000rpm, apart from spitting out a few leaves it was fine. We tried out a few of Bluebird's original oil pipes to see if we could use them on the new engine but they were a slightly different shape and the fittings on the ends don't marry up but it's only to be expected. The original engine was from a prototype Gnat fighter so there are bound to be subtle differences on the later derivatives. We could modify the pipes to make them fit but once modified they are altered for all time. On the other hand it would mean that there was more original 1967 model Bluebird in the finished article???????? Answers on a postcard as usual.

Next job is to get the oil pump off and get it cleaned out, it's full of crud and it wouldn't do to have it pump said crud around the engine the moment we fire it up!

Well, I'm off on holiday so unfortunately I won't be able to get frostbite in Coniston this year, those of you going over there for January 04, have a good time and give my regards to the Skipper for me.

	Combustion chambers after outer covers have been
Jet pipe waiting to be put on engine number 1
	Removed power turbine (told it was very heavy but more dangerous than heavy with all those razor sharp blades)
Fuel pump (black) And fuel delivery unit

	It doesn't matter really whether you are playing with a worlds record breaking car, high speed boat or any kind of advanced engineering rocketry or what have you, you still need drain rods to move it about the engine shop
Rear bearing rusted beyond repair
	Rear bearing off engine number two being inspected
Rear bearing outer race being cleaned of solidified oil
	One row of blades clean six to go
Good job divers have lights

	Rear of engine rebuilt
Alain inserts the rear bearing retaining circlip
	Rear ring reinstalled