Fastest jet boat?

[ck7684]

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/convair_seadart.htm

[Sleeper CP]

One of these Sea Darts is on display in Balboa Park in San Diego in front of the Areo Space Museum next to a SR-71 Black bird. Great display for the entrance of the Museum.
Sleeper CP

[centerhill condor]

thanks, I had never seen that before today!

[Squirtcha?]

Cool. Hard to tell from the pic with all the spray n such, but it kinda resembles the old F-104 Starfighter.

[Sleeper CP]

Here is a better picture of that jet (boat). Not sure about the boat part though.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/Sleepercp/Picture346-1.jpg?t=1185381818
Sleeper CP

[El Prosecutor]

One of these Sea Darts is on display in Balboa Park in San Diego in front of the Areo Space Museum next to a SR-71 Black bird. Great display for the entrance of the Museum.
Sleeper CP
The Blackbird in front of the air museum at Balboa Park is actually an A12, the CIA's single seat predecessor to the Air Force's SR-71. To me the Blackbird family of aircraft are one of the great engineering feats of all time, considering they were designed without computers in the '60s and can travel at 3x the speed of sound. For those interested there is a great website dedicated to these birds at www.habu.org ;)

[Sleeper CP]

Not to take anything away from Mr. Kelly Johnson and his team, however I have always thought that there was a bit of reverse engineering involved with the building of the Blackbird. That plane was light years ahead of the technoligies that were used to build any other aircraft in the 1960's. I beleive it was conceived in 1958 and built in 1963.
When it retired and set the world record speed another pilot could have got in it and flown it faster the next day. She had more left in her. A truely amazing aircraft.
Sleeper CP

[El Prosecutor]

Not to take anything away from Mr. Kelly Johnson and his team, however I have always thought that there was a bit of reverse engineering involved with the building of the Blackbird. That plane was light years ahead of the technoligies that were used to build any other aircraft in the 1960's. I beleive it was conceived in 1958 and built in 1963.
When it retired and set the world record speed another pilot could have got in it and flown it faster the next day. She had more left in her. A truely amazing aircraft.
Sleeper CP
True fact on more speed. A few years ago I was told by a researcher named Steve Smith who worked with NASA's Blackbirds that the speed limitation was based on heat expansion of the materials used, and that the design of the propulsion system had a lot more potential if used with materials that could handle it.

[Sleeper CP]

Sea Dart and Blackbird at AreoSpace Museum
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/Sleepercp/Picture348.jpg?t=1185378791
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/Sleepercp/Pictures346-1.jpg?t=1185379760
Sleeper CP

[ck7684]

Reverse engineered from what?? I have heard a lot of Blackbird stories, and it definately had more potential, and may have unofficially been flown much faster than the record books say...perhaps Mach 4+
...but you cant ski behind it at all...;)

[Sleeper CP]

Reverse engineered from what??
That would be technology borrowed from what the space nuts refer to as :Not from this neighborhood.
Sleeper CP

[Squirtcha?]

Here is a better picture of that jet (boat). Not sure about the boat part though.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/Sleepercp/Picture346-1.jpg?t=1185381818
Sleeper CP
Gotta change my stuff around now that I see the whole thing. More like a F-102 Delta Daggar or F-106 Delta Dart
F-102
http://www.seanet.com/~johnco/Image2.jpg
F-106
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/f106/f106_08.jpg

[Xerophobic]

Back to actual boats.......(hehe)
While certainly not as fast as jet drag boats I was amazed to hear Mark Cromie's crew indicate during the World Jet Boat Marathon recently they had pulled a downstream speed of 131+ mph in their Kwik Kraft boat. The boat featured a twin turbo EFI, intercooled big block with full onboard computerisex telemetry. Of course that was running also running a full rock grate. If they hadn't gone thru impellers like everyone else did underwear it would have been a near ideal setup! (team ripped thru over 15K in impellers over the 8 day race)
http://outlaweagle.com/forum/files/wc_race_07_066_147.jpg
http://outlaweagle.com/forum/files/copy_of_wc_race07_001_830.jpg
http://outlaweagle.com/forum/files/copy_of_wc_race_07_076_394.jpg
Cheers

[Sleeper CP]

131mph on the river is "F"iiinnnggg nuts. Big balls, small brains.:rolleyes:
Sleeper CP

[stoker2001]

Dont forget,GPS measures land speed.To get accurate reading on a river you have to subtract "downriver current speed".Another method is to make an upriver run and add it to the DR run and divide by two to get average of both

[Xerophobic]

131+ under any circumstances is impressive much less with a rock grate AND the fact thats a sustainable speed. And when I say sustainable I don't mean for a 10 second drag blast I mean like hold your foot to the floor for an hour
That engine lasted 588 miles without a hitch, team lost the title on the last leg due to a broken loader bar seperating from inside the rock grate and destroying an impeller. They got to the ramp and swapped impellers in 4 min 5 seconds and got back out but failed to finish the leg in the time allowed and received a single DNF eliminating them from the world title hunt. Trust me the tech guys in the picture did NOT look that happy the nite after the race ended
Cheers