NARRATOR: With the arrival of the jet age in the mid-1940s,
speeds once only dreamed of became a reality.
Two extraordinary days 20 years apart stand out.
Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight
and Donald Campbell's attempt to become the fastest man on water.
This is a dramatisation of events as they happened,
on two days that shook the world.
It is 1947.
The Arab-Israeli War is about to start
A UFO has supposedly crashed at Roswell
India has just won independence from Britain.
And far out in the Mojave Desert of California,
one man is about to pit his wits against a terrifying force
that has already claimed the lives of many of his friends.
His name is Charles Elwood Yeager,
but everyone knows him simply as Chuck.
Born in the backwoods of West Virginia, Yeager is a maverick,
a wild hillbilly turned fighter ace,
credited with shooting down more than a dozen enemy aircraft
during World War Two.
Yeager is one of the finest pilots in the US Army Air Force.
But he is about to face the greatest challenge of his life.
Today, he will strap himself into a 31-foot rocket powered plane,
and attempt to fly faster than any man before,
faster than the speed of sound.
High above the desert is the wilderness of sky that Yeager loves to call
"- The wild blue yonder."
But in the violent dogfights of World War Two,
many pilots were not killed by enemy fire,
but by a terrifying force of nature
that lurked in the sky that Yeager loves.
"Enemy pilots dived for their lives in dogfights.
"Sometimes, they never did pull out and ploughed right into the ground.
"More than once, I almost followed them in.
"Diving at more than 500 miles per hour,
"my Mustang began to shake violently and my controls froze.
I nearly bent that damn stick straining to pull out."
NARRATOR: Scientists calculated that this buffeting in power-dives
would peak at Mach 1, 760 miles per hour,
the speed of sound.
The phenomenon became known as the sound barrier,
a wall of turbulent air that would smash any aeroplane that tried to pierce it
Now, with the arrival of new jet technology,
speeds approaching Mach 1 have suddenly become possible.
The enormous tactical advantage of one day
breaking through the sound barrier,
and flying faster than the speed of sound,
is now the ultimate ambition of the military.
And, for the past four months,
Yeager has been working at great risk and in top secret
on America's project to become the first nation to go supersonic.
Yeager's wife Glennis drives him to the top-secret Muroc Airbase.
Despite only just scraping through high school,
Yeager has been selected ahead of other more qualified test pilots
because of his uncanny ability to keep cool
during the moments of extreme danger that fill his dally routine.
Glennis knows only a little of what he is doing,
and has learned it's better not to ask.
I really don't know why Chuck appealed to me so much.
"I dated a few soldiers, but never a fighter pilot.
"But also, I sensed he was a very strong and determined person.
"A poor boy, who had started with nothing,
rand would show the world what he was really made of-"
NARRATOR: The formidable plane that Yeager will fly today
will test him to the limit
The Bell XS-1 aircraft,
"X" for experimental, "s" for supersonic
and the first of its kind to be flown.
The XS-1 has been built to government contract
at a cost of over four million dollars.
Based on the streamlined shape of a .5 calibre bullet,
the plane has a fearsome engine nicknamed Black Betsy.
Its performance is straight out of Buck Rogers.
Betsy can push the aircraft up into the outer limits of the atmosphere
at a rate of 20,000 feet per minute,
just as long as its highly volatile fuel doesn't explode on ignition,
and blow the aircraft and pilot into the middle of the next century.
The X-1 team meet for breakfast.
MAN: Looks like your friend Slick's in here again.
NARRATOR: For months they have lived and breathed the project,
but they have little support from anybody else on the airbase.
Yeager knows that most think the X-1 is little more
than a hugely expensive joke.
to put me on that plane? A thousand dollars.
"Practically, nobody at Muroc gives us any chance of success."
"There are only 13 of us on the project,"
"and we were off by ourselves at the far end of the airbase."
I didn't have to be a genius to figure out that they were putting
"plenty of distance between their own hides and us"
"to see whether or not the only thing I'd break was my own precious neck."
NARRATOR: Yeager has brought two of his closest friends onto the project.
Captain jack Ridley, an Army Air Corps engineer,
has been working on vital modifications to the X-1's design.
Ridley is the only man Yeager trusts with his life
Bob Hoover is backup X-1 test pilot.
But he knows he will only get to fly the X-1
if disaster strikes for his friend.
The only civilian on the team is Dick Frost, Bell's chief engineer.
He's been the driving force behind the X-1 programme
since it began in 1945.
"Yeager, Ridley and Hoover arrived at Muroc in mid-July."
"Hoover was a happy-go-lucky stick and rudder man. Hell of a good pilot."
"But Chuck Yeager was all test pilot."
"He was intent and serious."
"There was a certain sceptical look in his eyes,"
"probably from the feeling that people looked down on him"
"because he lacked their education and background."
"But, by God, he'd show them."
NARRATOR: Preparations begin for today's flight
The X-1 is towed to the fuel depot.
As with all his previous aircraft, Yeager has named the X-1 after his wife.
"Chuck purposely hadn't told me that he named the plane
"Glamorous Glennis, but there it was, written on the nose.
"He did that on his Mustang in England.
"But this was in important research aeroplane and I was very surprised.
"He said, "You're my good luck charm, hon.
"Any aeroplane I name after you always brings me home."
NARRATOR: Alone in his office, Jack Ridley checks and rechecks
his calculations for Yeager's next flight
The X-1 has been radically modified, according to his design.
Today's flight will put his theory to the test.
"The X-1 was controlled in the same way as a conventional plane,"
"with elevators hinged on the tailplane operated for climb or descend."
"On every flight, Chuck had flown faster and faster,"
"but at speeds over 600 miles per hour,"
“turbulence caused sudden and violent pitching
"sending the aircraft out of control"
I hoped I'd come up with a solution.
"We added a motor so that a small but critical correction could be made"
"to the angle of the X-E’s entire tailplane during flight."
NARRATOR: If Ridley's calculations are correct,
his modification will keep the aircraft stable
as it flies into the sound barrier.
But if he is wrong, the tailplane could be torn off,
sending the X-1 and his friend Yeager spinning into the Earth.
At the fuelling depot. the X-7 is prepared for flight
It is filled with over 600 gallons of a highly explosive mixture
of liquid oxygen and alcohol
The liquid oxygen is stored at a temperature
of minus 290 degrees centigrade in tanks right behind the pilot's seat
Fully laden, the X-1 weighs a massive two and a half tons,
with nearly two-thirds of the weight taken up by the fuel
Yeager knows he will effectively be strapping himself
into a bomb with wings.
If he is unable to fire the engine and has to land the aircraft
with the fuel still aboard, the undercarriage will collapse
and Yeager and his plane will be blown to pieces.
(CUTTING)
For ail the expense of the flight programme,
Yeager has not even been issued with a helmet for his test flight.
An old leather tank driver's helmet
is the only thing he can find to protect his head.
But Yeager has another problem,
one that he has been keeping secret for the last two days.
(AIRCRAFT PASSING)
A fall from a horse when out riding has left him with two broken ribs.
BOB HOOVER: Thought you might need this.
What is this?
- That's your riding kit. - My riding kit.
YEAGER: Oh, right, a carrot, thank you, because...
NARRATOR: Yeager and his friends know that as soon
as his injury is made public, he will be grounded.
Why did you get me glasses? You know I see perfectly.
That's so you can see where the hell you're going next time.
Ridley told me about your ribs. Let's have a look at you.
Ridley told you.
- How's the horse doing? - The horse?
You're something else.
Well, I hope you fly better than you ride.
Well, you know I do, 50 you just watch my back.
NARRATOR: As the team continue their preparations,
the X-1 is loaded into the belly of a specially-adapted B-29 bomber.
As it holds fuel for just two and a half minutes of powered flight
the X-1 will be carried up to 20,000 feet and dropped like a bomb.
The bomb bay doors and most of the underside of the B-29,
have been cut away to accommodate the rocket plane.
Even so, there is less than a foot of clearance between the underside
of the fully laden X-1 and the ground.
And nobody wants to think of the consequences
of an accident on takeoff,
when just a single bomb shackle is holding two and a half tons
of volatile rocket fuel inches from the runway.
(ALL CHATTERING)
Good morning, gentlemen.
ALL: Good morning, sir.
X-1 flight number nine coming up.
For today's flight, temperature of 85 degrees...
NARRATOR: Today's flight plan
is designed to test Ridley's new tall configuration
up to a speed of Mach .95.
miles an hour. Runway six is...
"If we were successful, a flight at Mach 1, the speed of sound,"
"was just a few days away."
"But we knew Chuck's injury was gonna make today's test flight"
"his last for a long time."
B-29 will take off and climb to 15,000 feet
where they will be joined by the chase aircraft,
continue to climb to 25,000 feet for the test.
Hoover, you'll have accelerated out ahead...
NARRATOR: Frost will fly a chase plane alongside the B-29
to monitor the X-1's drop from the bomber.
Hoover will take up position 10 miles ahead
to provide Yeager with an aiming point, as he rockets past
Cardenas, you wanna talk us through the last five minutes prior to release?
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Okay, five minute warning, gentlemen.
NARRATOR: B-29 pilot, Bob Cardenas, is the officer in charge of the flight.
He takes the team through the launch protocol
Four minutes, pressurise the fuel tanks.
Three minutes, pressurise LOX tanks.
Two minutes, the tower's gonna announce the test in progress.
One minute warning, clear to drop.
SENIOR OFFICER: Yeager, particularly monitor
the elevator effectiveness as you go through .94 Mach.
The engineers think that that's really a critical point.
And don't go faster than that
unless you're really confident that you can handle it.
Gentlemen, that completes the briefing. Are there any questions?
- Have a good flight. - Thank you, sir.
Set them up, boys. Let's go fly.
"Ridley's moving tall really bolstered my morale"
"and I wanted to get to that sound barrier."
I suppose there were advantages in creeping up on Mach 1,
"but my vote was to stop screwing around before we had some stupid accident"
"that could cost us not only a mission, but the entire project."
(CHATTERING)
NARRATOR: The crew assemble, ready to board the mother ship.
All other aircraft had been instructed to land and clear the airspace
ready for the B-29's takeoff.
Cardenas Will take the pilot seat with Ridley as co-pilot
But there is no seat in the bomber for Yeager,
who has just a fruit box to sit on during takeoff.
- Let's go fly, boys. - All right, let's do it.
NARRATOR: As the crew take up their positions,
final checks are made on the mother ship.
At the edge of the runway, radar-tracking equipment is set up
to monitor Yeager's flight.
Muroc Tower, Air Force eight-zero-zero taxi instructions.
MAN ON RADIO: B-29 eight-zero-zero, cleared runway six, seven miles an hour.
Roger, clear to line up and roll
- Clear to roll? - She's all yours, Major.
NARRATOR: Far from the action, Chuck's wife Glennis can only wait
until the flight is over.
The B-29 makes the slow climb to altitude.
Cardenas checks in with the progress of the chase planes.
B-29 eight-zero-zero, Air Force two-zero-one.
Hoover, you guys on the way up?
Yeah, boy.
CARDENAS ON RADIO: Okay, we're just closing 15,000 feet,
about 20 south of the lake,
making a right turn now and heading south.
Roger.
NARRATOR: As the plane continues climbing to 20,000 feel,
Ridley and Yeager head for the freezing air of the bomb bay
and the entrance to the cockpit of the X-1.
Only the streamlined shape of the X-1
lies between Yeager and the desert 8,000 feet below.
Dangling on a tiny platform,
Yeager battles against the biting wind of the slipstream
to squeeze himself into the cockpit
Because of Yeager's broken ribs, Ridley has cut a short length
of broomstick for him to throw shut the heavy door latch
and seal himself inside the cockpit
Bob Hoover accelerates past the B-29 to take up his position ten miles ahead.
HOOVER ON RADIO: Air Force two-zero-one. I see you now, buddy. Coming up to you.
Eight-zero-zero, five minute warning.
"There are at least a dozen ways that X-1 can kill you,"
"so your concentration is total"
"I'd be flying higher, around 45,000 feel"
rand faster than any military pilot had yet flown.
"Anyone with brain cells would have to wonder"
"what in hell he was doing in such a situation,"
"strapped inside a live bomb that's about to be dropped out of a bomb bay."
"But risks are the spice of life"
"and this is the kind of moment a test pilot lives for."
"The butterflies are fluttering,"
"but you feed off fears as if 1's a high-energy candy bar."
It keeps you alert and focused.
"You count on experience, concentration and instincts to pull you through."
"And luck. Without luck..."
CARDENAS ON RADIO: Four minutes.
NARRATOR: Frost files alongside the B-29,
ready to monitor the launch of the X-1.
Yeager, this is Frost I'm in position to check your jettison.
Roger, fuel jettison in on.
Fuel jettison okay? Switch off.
LOX jettison and switch off are okay.
Roger, two minutes.
MAN ON RADIO: Muroc Air Force Base to all aircraft.
All aircraft stay clear of Muroc dry lake area.
Test in progress.
All aircraft on ground return to parking positions.
Repeat, all aircraft stay clear.
B-29 eight-zero-zero to NACA radar, Muroc tower, chase aircraft, one minute.
MAN ON RADIO: NACA radar to Air Force B-29 eight-zero-zero.
You are clear to drop.
Yeager, this is Ridley. You all set?
Hell, yes. Let's get it over with.
- Remember those stabilizer settings. - Roger.
Eight-zero-zero, here is your countdown.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six
five, four, three, two, one.
Drop.
"The moment of truth."
"If you're gonna be blown up, this is likely to be when."
"You light the first chamber.”"
YEAGER ON RADIO: Fire in four.
"Slammed back in your seat, tremendous kick in the butt,"
"Nose up and hold on."
NARRATOR: Yeager begins to accelerate towards his test speed of Mach .95.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Pressure's all normal
NARRATOR: With just one rocket thruster firing,
he is already travelling at over 500 miles per hour.
"Climbing faster than you can even think."
"You've never known such a feeling of speed while pointing up to the sky."
"This beast's power is awesome."
NARRATOR: Suddenly, as the X-1 rockets past 600 miles per hour,
it smashes into violent turbulence.
It's the moment of truth for Ridley's calculations.
At Mach .95, Yeager makes the vital adjustment to the tailplane.
There is no room for error.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Say, Ridley, make a note here.
Elevator effectiveness regained.
Roger, noted.
NARRATOR: Ridley's tailplane has worked. The test is over.
But not for Yeager, who keeps on accelerating towards Mach 1.
YEAGER ON RADIO: Firing four.
"At 45,000 feet, where morning resembles the beginning of dusk,"
"when you turn on the last of the four chambers,"
"God, what a ride."
YEAGER ON RADIO: Mach .95.
.96,
.97,
.98,
.99...
NARRATOR: Just as he hits the full destructive force of the sound barrier,
Yeager disappears from sight
(SONIC BOOM)
For a moment, it seems Yeager is lost
(ENGINE ROARING)
YEAGER ON RADIO: Hey, Ridley. Make another note here.
There's something wrong with this Mach meter. It's gone screwy.
If it is, we'll fix it Personally, I think you're seeing things.
I guess I am, Jack.
NARRATOR: At precisely 10:18, on October 14, 1947,
Chuck Yeager has made history.
The first man to break through the sound barrier.
His sonic boom, the world's first,
marking the beginning of the supersonic age.
(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)
"The flight, in my report, was kept secret for seven months."
"But when we went public,"
"the news made Yeager the most famous pilot in the world."
(ALL CHATTERING)
You drink more and then you toast...
I'm still living.
NARRATOR: Yeager and Ridley continued to work
on the X project for nearly a decade
eventually taking their flights up to nearly three times the speed of sound.
Yeager went on to help train the first generation of astronauts,
and saw the X-1 programme culminate in man landing on the moon.
It is 1967,
20 years after Yeager's first supersonic flight
in swinging London, the Beatles are about to release Sergeant Pepper.
America is just a year away from putting a man on the moon.
In South Africa, the first heart transplant
is about to be carried out.
And in the Lake District of northern England,
one man is about to make a bid to break the world water speed record.
In a cottage in the village of Coniston,
Donald Campbell, world-famous record breaker,
sits playing a game of Russian Patience
watched by his old friend, newspaperman Keith Harrison.
It's been over two months, Donald.
We've got to stop the Americans. 300 will do that.
- What about the backers? - Backers? What backers?
Jet plane, jet boat, doesn't really matter.
Once you're committed, you're committed.
Ace of Spades, Queen of Spades.
Those are the cards Mary Queen of Scots drew right before she was beheaded.
Someone's for the chop.
Hope to God it's not me.
NARRATOR: Coniston Water, the Lake District.
For nine gruelling weeks, Campbell has been risking his neck
to get a new water speed record in his jet-powered boat Bluebird.
It has been a battle against appalling weather,
endless mechanical problems,
and with no sponsorship, time is running out fast for Campbell
Already famous for pushing a jet-powered car
to 400 miles per hour on land,
Campbell is obsessed with breaking the 300-mile per hour barrier on water,
but in a world now dominated by pop culture and the space race,
Campbell's old-fashioned values appear out of date and out of style.
MALE REPORTER: If you break this record, what does it prove?
I think perhaps, most important of all,
it still proves British leadership in engineering terms.
And it does, I think, also show the British,
when they make their minds up,
can jolly well overcome all obstacles and achieve anything.
So, really, this is based on British patriotism, as far as you're concerned.
We are all playing for a team, old boy. We are all playing for the same team.
NARRATOR: Camped out on the banks of the lake is John Lomax,
an amateur film maker from Liverpool
Over the last nine weeks,
he has used every spare penny he earns as an engineering fitter
to capture Campbell's attempts on film.
Lomax has seen the lake in all its moods,
violent one moment, placid the next
Like Campbell, he hopes that today the surface will remain calm enough
for the attempt to be made.
"Donald Campbell was my hero as far back as I could remember."
I loved his bulldog spirit
"He was keeping the flag waving for Britain."
"Most of the lads up where I came from in Liverpool"
"still believed in that kind of thing."
I wanted my film to be a tribute to him.
"He reckoned I might win a prize with it"
"One more trip back to Coniston,"
"and I reckon that I'd have the film finished"
"and Donald Campbell would have the record."
(CLOCK TICKING)
NARRATOR: Campbell wakes well before dawn
in a small house he has rented near Coniston Water.
He is all too aware of the risks he is taking in Bluebird.
But pride and spiralling debts give him no choice but to battle on.
Campbell knows that some are saying
that his attempt at 300 miles per hour is little more than a death wish.
Ten years earlier, his home movies had captured a time
when the stakes were not as high.
MALE REPORTER: New York, January, 1957.
A hectic week's business and many discussions in an effort
to find a new lake on which to attack the world's water speed record.
But, this is soon followed by some lovely days in the Florida sun.
NARRATOR: Campbell was living a jet-set lifestyle,
and record-breaking was part of the fun.
MALE REPORTER: It's St Patrick's Day,
and Nations and Campbell open the ski show.
NARRATOR: After his first world record in Bluebird in 1955,
Campbell was awarded the CBE.
His success attracted captains of industry
and the Bluebird project could count on corporate sponsorship.
Donald Campbell was the man of the moment
MAN: 250, 260 - into the kilometre. Still accelerating. 270, 275, 280.
NARRATOR: By 1964, Campbell had pushed Bluebird to 276 miles per hour.
In the same year, he took the land speed record at 400 miles per hour
in his jet-powered car on Lake Eyre in Australia.
Holding both records was the peak of his career.
He had found real happiness with his third wife, cabaret singes, Tonia Bern.
The couple were the stars of the moment
He had the CBE and hoped to be knighted, but the honour never came.
Now, in 1967, younger, trendier icons have taken the spotlight
Campbell's land speed record has been broken
by glamorous young American Craig Breedlove.
The old school of record-breaking is out of fashion.
Campbell's sponsors have deserted him.
His obsession has all but destroyed his marriage.
He's going it alone at Coniston.
MALE REPORTER: How does it make you feel to have to rely on the help of press men
even to launch Bluebird, to man your boats and things like this?
Well, they are all jolly good, willing helpers,
and it's the good, old Battle of Britain, Dunkirk spirit.
There's a job to be done, it's a man-sized job,
and everybody up here with a heartbeat in the right place is,
you know, right behind it.
They've been up here for an awful long time.
What is it costing a day, every day you have to wait?
A lot too much.
Can you give us any idea how long you can hold out?
Once you start on one of these world's record attempts,
you're past the point of no return the moment you start.
There is no going back.
(WHIRRING)
NARRATOR: Keith Harrison starts the generator to light the boathouse.
Soon, the rest of Campbell's team will arrive.
As a press reporter, Harrison has followed all of Campbell's exploits
and is proud to be an unofficial member of the team.
Although he knows Campbell's spirits are at an all-time low,
his major concern is with the boat
"I'd seen the boat first time out in all its glory in 1955,"
"and Donald like a grinning school boy with a new toy."
"But the boat I stood looking at that January morning"
"was a very different beast"
"Everything about it had changed."
"Donald now had nothing short of a jet plane without wings."
"And today, he was planning to push it right to the limit"
NARRATOR: In preparation for the new attempt,
the boat has been fitted with a far more powerful engine,
a Bristol Orpheus,
but using 1,000 lbs more thrust than the original
(ENGINE WHIRRING)
At high speed, Bluebird is designed to rise up on its floats
and skim across the water
with just 14-square inches of hull in contact with the surface.
But the new engine threw the boat out of balance,
and Bluebird refused to perform.
Sandbags, later replaced by lead ballast,
were attached to the tall of the boat
it was enough to get Bluebird skimming again.
But there is still a problem with fuel supply to the jet.
More than once, the engine has cut out under power.
Campbell cannot afford any more delay,
and has announced that Bluebird is ready.
He just needs a break in the weather.
Campbell gets ready to leave for Pier Cottage and Bluebird.
A deeply superstitious man,
he will take with him his lucky mascot, Mr Woppit
and around his neck he carries a St Christopher
given to him by his father,
the world-famous record breaker, Sir Malcolm Campbell
in the last few weeks, the newspapers have sniped at Donald,
accusing him of being no more than a pale imitation of his father,
the legendary speed king.
He didn't want you to follow in his footsteps, did he?
No, he did not. Most and very emphatically, he did not.
Why didn't he want you to?
Well, I suppose better than anybody, of course, he knew the risks
and I was his only son.
And why did you?
Possibly because I was his son.
NARRATOR: Born into a privileged world and surrounded by fast cars
and record-breaking machines,
Donald was always going to be his father's son.
Through the 1920s and '30s,
Malcolm Campbell had the world at his feet,
and Donald always at his side.
A self-made man who let nothing stand between him and his ambitions,
Sir Malcolm was the symbol of everything England stood for between the wars.
He was the speed king in an age where every record broken
was another feather in the cap for the Empire.
MAN: Three cheers for Sir Malcolm Campbell Hip, hip...
ALL: Hurray!
- Hip, hip... - Hurray!
Donald worshipped him.
But while Sir Malcolm was alive, there was only room for one record breaker.
After Sir Malcolm's death in 1948,
Donald, who'd never raced a car or boat before,
decided that he could not let the Americans
take his father's records from Britain.
He vowed to keep the Bluebird name alive
and continue the Campbell dynasty.
extremely pleased. It's now just a question of waiting
for a settled spell of weather, so that we complete the trials
and possibly make the attempt that we have to on the record itself.
Harrison checks the surface conditions
across the long stretch of Coniston Water.
The lake is five and a quarter miles long, one hundred and eighty feet deep,
and just half a mile wide.
Mountainous and exposed at one end and wooded at the other,
conditions constantly change on the surface.
Harrison has often heard Campbell call the unpredictable waters "the bitch".
Today, a wind from the northwest sends squalls and eddies across the water,
but the surface looks better than it has for weeks.
Campbell will make his decision as soon as he arrives.
CAMPBELL: When you go down to the arena, you know,
you go down with your eyes open.
And when you go down into the arena,
you well know you're sometimes likely to get your nose punched.
You do it with your eyes open, you take the risks.
Of course you're under tension, of course you're frightened,
everybody concerned is.
If they weren't, you'd be very frightened of them.
But you keep these fears to yourself.
Campbell sets off for the Bluebird launch site.
There he will assemble his team and decide if today is the day.
CAMPBELL: I worshipped my father.
In 1935, I was a schoolboy
on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah when he was the first man to reach 300,
And on that first run, one of the Dunlop lyres burst
at 300 miles an hour as the car left the measured mile.
And I will never forget seeing the old man by the side of that car,
gaunt and silent and I tried to talk to him.
And then suddenly I realised, this was the wrong thing to do
because I was sure, in his own mind, that he thought
that on his return run, he was going to be killed.
But that didn't daunt him,
and it didn't in any way affect his resolution.
What are you thinking, Skip?
Let's go for it. Everyone to their stations.
In the boathouse, John Lomax gets more shots for his film
as Campbell and his team, prepare Bluebird for the water.
"There was Leo Villa, Campbell's mechanic.
"They were always straight with each other,
"but things were different that morning. Campbell was on edge.
"He'd told Villa about the cards he'd drawn the night before.
"Villa was like a father to Donald.
He'd been Sir Malcolm's mechanic through the 20s and "30s"
rand had known Donald since he was a child.
"But Villa believed"
"that either you took bad omens 100% seriously and packed it in,"
"or you forgot about them and got on with it"
"Donald knew the choice was his."
I suppose after 64 days, anybody would have just wanted it over with.
"But he looked very much on his own."
NARRATOR: On the opposite shore of the lake,
the timekeepers set up their equipment.
Two sets of electrically-fired chronometres will be triggered
as Bluebird enters and exits the course.
Under the rules for a record attempt, Campbell must make two runs.
If his average speed on the course is over 300 miles per hour,
the record will be his.
On a boat at the far end of the lake,
Harrison and a photographer from his newspaper
are ready to watch the attempt
Harrison will monitor Campbell's radio transmissions during the two runs.
With Bluebird's jet engine fuelled up and ready to go, Campbell climbs aboard.
The boat is slowly winched down the slipway and onto the lake.
"We'd been frozen to the bone for weeks. We'd watched and waited"
"and hoped each day would be the day."
"Sometimes you couldn't help but start to lose the faith."
"But each time I saw that boat slide out onto the lake"
"and Campbell say, 'Command',"
"you could feel the whole atmosphere change."
"And the minute Bluebird was fired up, you knew why you were there,"
"and you wouldn't swap that experience for anything in the world."
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Campbell heads out into the middle of the lake
and lines up for the first timed run.
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Rather than join the press on the lake to film the runs,
Lomax decides to wait alone on the pier.
He wants to be in prime position when Campbell returns in triumph.
Clear to go.
It's beginning to lift
It's moving very hard at 150.
NARRATOR: Campbell accelerates from thirty to two hundred miles per hour
in just six seconds.
(CHATTERING ON RADIO)
NARRATOR: Accelerating hard past 250 miles per hour,
Campbell charges up to the first marker and the timers are triggered.
MAN ON RADIO: Still holds. Still holds.
NARRATOR: In just five seconds, he has covered the distance.
But Campbell doesn't peak until he's further down the lake.
Untimed and out of sight of the timekeepers,
he hits 320 miles per hour.
Even though he uses a powerful water brake,
it still takes him nearly two miles to slow down.
CAMPBELL ON RADIO: Bruce, do you read me? Over.
Roger, skipper. Tango, Tango, do you read? Over.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base, Tango to base, standby.
NARRATOR: Everything hangs on the timekeepers' calculations.
Two hundred and fifty miles per hour is their baseline.
Campbell has gone through the course at a plus 47,
297 miles per hour.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base, message for skipper.
Plus 47, plus 47, plus 47.
NARRATOR: Now Campbell knows that he only needs another 6 miles per hour
on the return run, and the record will be his.
I'm starting to do the turn around now.
NARRATOR: He doesn't pause to refuel and heads back down the lake.
Campbell accelerates hard, pitching over the rough wake of his first run.
He wants to be at full speed when he enters the course.
CAMPBELL ON RADIO: I'm going to try another rush.
(CAMPBELL CHATTERING ON RADIO)
Full power.
Throttle full on.
I can't see.
NARRATOR: He hits 318 miles per hour as he passes the first marker.
I can't see anything.
I've got the bows up.
I've gone!
MAN 1 ON RADIO: Hello, Tango to base, Tango to base. Over.
MAN 2 ON RADIO: Base to Tango. Over.
Base to Tango. Over.
Tango to base, Tango to base.
- Complete accident, I'm afraid. Over. - Roger. Details? Over.
No details as yet No details. Standby.
NARRATOR: The rescue boats rushed to the scene.
But Bluebird has already sunk beyond reach,
plummeting 140 feet down to the bottom of the lake.
Floating wreckage from the boat is recovered,
along with Campbell's empty helmet, his socks, shoes, a glove,
his life jacket and his lucky mascot Mr Woppit.
I remember Campbell saying to the press,
"You know and I know why you are here."
"And then he nodded."
"But I, for one, never wanted this ending."
I walked back up the pier, I took a last shot of his car,
and I went home.
I had to phone my story in.
"I'd never wanted to listen to those others"
"who always said this was the inevitable end."
"But it was. He knew it"
"He'd crashed his jet-car once and I remember him telling me,"
"I knew she was going. I knew I was going."
"It was nearly half-a-minute after I lost her that we were in the air."
"It was tremendously peaceful'"
"Today when I heard him say, Tm going,"
"I knew those last few seconds before the crash"
"were probably the most peaceful in the life of Donald Campbell, hero."
NARRATOR: Campbell was awarded the Queen's Commendation
for Brave Conduct a month after his death.
John Lomax returned to film Campbell's memorial
on the green in Coniston village.
Donald's mother, Lady Dorothy,
unveiled a simple memorial to her son.
(CAMPBELL SPEAKING)
NARRATOR: For more than 30 years, there has been speculation
over the cause of Campbell's death.
Some said an object in the water caused the crash.
But nothing floating would have been heavy enough to cause the boat
to somersault.
Refuelling the boat would not have affected its balance
and Campbell had sufficient for the return run.
But Bluebird's engine had been plagued by fuel supply problems,
cutting out completely on two earlier occasions.
The accident was most likely the result of fuel supply failure,
compounded by the pitching motion from the wake of the previous run.
When the boat became airborne,
there is clearly no jet-thrust seen against the water.
Campbell's boat, already unstable and now robbed of forward thrust,
flipped backwards as it hit the now impenetrable wall of air
before somersaulting back into the lake.
It is difficult to accept that Donald Campbell
was carrying out a death wish.
The shock in his voice was far foo real
But tragically,
his premonition of suffering the same fate as Mary Queen of Scots
was borne out.
When his remains were finally recovered in May 2001,
it was clear that his head had taken the full impact,
as Bluebird's cockpit collapsed against the water.
MAN ON RADIO: Tango to base, Tango to base.
Complete accident, I'm afraid. Over.