The Spirit was covered with a canvas tarpaulin when it rained and was made of wood and fibreglass. On 20 November 1977, he set a new world water speed record of 288.60 mph (464.46 km/h), breaking the record of Lee Taylor by a little over 3 mph (4.8 km/h).
HistoryKen Warby, SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA's designer, builder and driver, achieved his world water-speed records on a shoestring budget. The boat was built over two years in the backyard of his suburban Sydney home, using stringers, brackets, stock bits of timber, plywood, screws and epoxy, and launched in 1974.
Just forward of the cockpit are the airspeed fitting and a cleat — even the world's fastest boat needs to be towed or tied up. Spirit of Australia is a hydroplane designed and built by Ken Warby in Australia between 1972 – 1974.
Spirit of Australia was designed and built by Australian motorboat racer Ken Warby who holds the 317.6 MPH record that has been in place since 1978. The Spirit of Australia can today be found on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.
Ken Warby1972 – 1974
SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA is an Australian designed and built jet-powered, wooden, 3-point hydroplane that has held the world water-speed record since 1977. Breaking both the 300 m/h and 500 km/h barriers, SPIRIT OF AUSTRALIA raised the world record to 511.11km/h in 1978 at Blowering Dam near Tumut NSW.
The Spirit of Australia II has undergone extensive computerised testing and wind tunnel modelling with Newcastle University. The team knows the boat has a theoretical max-speed of more than 600 km/h, but the speed seekers will be content just to set a new record.
What is the world's fastest boat? The current title of world's fastest boat belongs to Spirit of Australia, which recorded a two-way average top speed of 317.6mph (551.1 km/h) on Blowering Dam, NSW in 1978.
It was powered by a Westinghouse J34 jet engine. The engine was developed by the Westinghouse Electric Company in the late 1940s and was used for jet fighters and other aircraft.
HSC Francisco is a high-speed catamaran built by Incat in Hobart, Tasmania. Powered by liquefied natural gas, she is currently the fastest passenger ship in service, reaching a speed of 58 knots (107 km/h; 67 mph).
Ken Warby had a dream as a young child to become the fastest man on water. A feat he achieved in 1977 then repeated in 1978, setting the current outright unlimited world water speed record of 317.6mph in his boat SPIRIT of AUSTRALIA.
Forty years, 1 month and 8 days ago. Ken Warby, Australian professional pilot, pushes hard on the 10,000 horsepower of his Spirit of Australia, reaching 511 km/h on the waters of the Blowering Dam, marking that run in history.
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606. The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline.
The Australian Flag was flown for the first time on 3 September 1901, the day on which the then Prime Minister announced the 5 joint competition winners.
Spirits - as well as wine and beer - are taxed per litre of alcohol present in the beverage. So, for example, a 700ml bottle of Bundaberg Red Rum has 37 per cent alcohol content - so the higher the alcohol content, the more tax is applied.
Phillip Adams, the writer who coined the famous “the Spirit of Australia” tagline for Qantas, has announced in a tweet he's withdrawing the slogan from being used further by the company. In fact, Adams made an offer to the ABC in 2020, suggesting the public broadcaster take up the tagline instead of Qantas.
The yacht was built in Cottesloe by local boatbuilder Steve Ward. The crew was based in Perth and undertook a rigorous training program to prepare them for the series of races that would determine the challenger for the America's Cup, held in Newport, Rhode Island.
The longest wooden ship ever built, the six-masted New England gaff schooner Wyoming, had a "total length" of 137 metres (449 ft) (measured from tip of jibboom (30 metres) to tip of spanker boom (27 metres) and a "length on deck" of 107 m (351 ft).
The historic Ford Falcon – a Ford Fairmont Ghia ESP by its formal name – was the last to be built with an Australian-made 'Cleveland' V8 engine, and was fitted with a gold plaque on its dashboard documenting its significance.
The maximum speed in water is the speed of light in vacuum i.e. c. The speed that light travels in water is less than c. It is c/n, where n is the refractive index. However this is not any fundamental limitation.
How fast can high-performance boats go? To make things simple, we'll define any powerboat that exceeds 70 MPH as a high-performance boat. These days, there are plenty of boats that can run more than 120 MPH and several models that—with enough horsepower—can top 180 MPH.
The Gibbs Aquada is the World's very first High-Speed Amphibious car, capable of over 100mph (160km) on land and over 30mph (48km) on water. This amphibious car is a bit different than previous vehicles listed, due to its innovative retractable wheels.
So light is the fastest thing. Nothing can go faster than that. It's kind of like the speed limit of the universe.
It's not a 'car' in a conventional sense, but the ThrustSSC is technically speaking the fastest car that's ever been built. The jet-powered vehicle was clocked at 763mph back in 1997, making it the first car to break the sound barrier.