Bluebird K7

technical specification

Country Of Manufacture Great Britain
Overall Length 26 ft 4 inches
Overall Beam 10 ft 6 inches
Overall Height 4 ft 8½inches
Length Of Floats 12 ft 3¾ inches
All-Up Weight 2½ tons (approx)
Construction High duty ‘Birmabright’ light alloy hull, built around a high tensile steel main frame.
Power Unit
Make And Type Metropolitan Vickers ‘Beryl’ turbo-jet engine of Straight - through design, with: 10-stage axial compressor, single stage turbine - later replaced with a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus from a Gnat fighter plane in 1966.
Dimensions 11 ft 9 inches long
3 ft 2 inches diameter
1780 lbs weight
Thrust 4,000 Thrust lbs (beryl). Sea Level static at 8,000 revolutions per minute.
Fuel Kerosene, stored in a ‘saddle tank
Consumption 650 gallons of Kerosene per hour, 3 tons of air per minute

Note: For the 1955 attempt on Ullswater only 46½ gallons of Kerosene was carried to provide 4½ minutes running time during which some 13½ tons of air will have passed through the engine.