How Long A Mile, now available on dvd

[Flying10uk]

I recently purchased a dvd copy of Donald Campbell's short film "How Long A Mile" which he filmed out in Australia in 1964 when he broke the World Lands Speed Record for wheel driven cars with his Bluebird Proteus CN7 car and the World Water Speed Record in his Bluebird K7 boat. The film explains his exploits and problems of breaking the 2 records which he attempted in Australia for the first time in 1963 but had to return the following year to achieve success. To this day he his the only person to have ever broken the World Land and Water Speed Records in the sam year. The dvd lasts for 28 mins, so is short but very interesting.

The Proteus gas turbine engine used in the CN7 car is a modified turbo-prop aircraft engine that has been made to deliver drive to the wheels from both ends of the engine. Interestingly, using this engine meant that a clutch was unnecessary because, on this engine, the power turbines can be braked with the engine running. Although the K7 boat featured in this film is the same boat in which Donald Campbell sadly lost his life a couple of years later, it is in an earlier form. The Australian record was achieved with the original less powerful Metropolitan Vickers Beryl jet engine and there were other differences to the boat, such as a lower tail fin.

I first became aware of the existence of this film, years ago, when I attended a talk given by one of the Norris brothers, who designed the car and boat, and also Gina Campbell, Donald's daughter. At this time, 1990s?, the film still hadn't been released to the public and so I couldn't obtain my own copy. Originally it was intended to be shown on the cinema circuit but never was and has only just been released to the public, 50 years after it was made. I thought that others may be interested in this dvd, not just Land/Water Speed Record enthusiast, but also our Australian Forum members.

I got my copy from Amazon and the box states that my copy has a format that can be viewed anywhere.
How Long A Mile [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD Blu-ray

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[Aussie48]

Must order the DVD another piece of history

Dick

[Flying10uk]

It's a fascinating story.