How It Works-Amazing Vehicles

Slicing through the water

Just like air and land, the greatest obstacle to

record-breaking speeds on the water is drag.

Water is about 1,000 times denser than air, so

the best way to increase speed on water,

ironically, is to make as little contact as possible

w ith the water itself. If you watch a speedboat

race, most of the boat lifts out of the water at top

speeds – an aerodynamic engineering feat

called ‘foiling’. The twin hulls of A merica’s Cup

catamarans lift entirely out of the water, riding

only on razor-thin hydrofoil blades. The

catamaran design increases overall stability

without the necessit y of a single hull sitting

deep in the water.

How long would it take the

world’s quickest vehicles to hop

across the Atlantic at maximum

speed (if there was a bridge)?

On the clock:

London to

New York

Other speed demons... in water

Fastest hydrofoil

US Navy Fresh-1, 155.6km/h (96.7mph)

Universal UH19P: Jenny II, 137.4km/h (85.4mph)

US Navy Independence, 83km/h (52mph)

Fastest hovercraft

Fastest warship

Compressor

Rotating fan blades draw in air that’s compressed at

an 18:1 ratio through a series of compression blades.

Combustor

Liquid natural gas is injected into the

compressed air chamber and ignited to

release tremendous energy.

Turbine

The fl ow of hot exhaust spins a series

of turbines connected to a waterjet.

INCAT

FRANCISCO

Top speed

107.4km/h (66.7mph)

Length

99m (325ft)

Deadweight

450 tons

Passengers

1,

Cars

150

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

12.7 hours

VeloX3 bicycle

41.7 hours

Scorpion FV101 tank

76.8 hours

Spirit of

Australia

Since childhood, Australian speedboater Ken

Warby dreamed of breaking the world speed

record. His hero, British daredevil Donald

Campbell, died trying. In the Seventies, without

a sponsor, Warby built the Spirit of Australia in

his Sydney backyard, buying three clunky jet

engines in a RAAF surplus auction. Warby used

years of speedboat experience to draft the

three-point hydroplane design, in which only

three parts of the underside of the boat touch

the water at high speeds, greatly reducing drag.

With help from a university wind tunnel and the

RAAF, Warby reached a death-defying

511.1km/h (317.6mph) in 1978 – a record that

still stands to this day.

LM2500 marine gas turbine

It’s one thing to see a tiny

speedboat race across the ocean

surface, but it’s downright

mind-blowing to watch a

99-metre (295-foot) ferry hit

speeds of more than 50 knots (

kilometres/58 miles per hour)

while carrying up to 1,

passengers and 150 cars. The

Francisco is Australian

shipmaker Incat’s latest

breakthrough; a twin-hulled

catamaran powered by two

massive turbine engines

running on liquefi ed natural gas

(LNG). The turbines force water

through two enormous waterjets

that propel and steer the craft,

which cuts through the waves

like a warm knife through butter.

The Francisco w ill ferr y

passengers in style and speed

from Buenos Aires in Argentina,

to Montevideo in Uruguay.

WORLD’S FASTEST

PASSENGER FERRY

A closer look at the Francisco’s power source

FASTEST VEHICLES