Campbell set seven world water rate records with the craft between 1955 as well as 1967.
Throughout a run on January 4 1967 at Coniston Water the watercraft flipped at over 320mph. Mr Campbell died instantly as well as the wreck sank to the bottom where it lay for 34 years..
In 2001, Bill Smith as well as his group from the Bluebird Project handled to recoup the watercraft from all-time low of the water.
At this point, Mr Smith said there had been an agreement from the Campbell estate and from Ruskin Museum that his team would restore the boat back to full working order as it was in 1967.
He said that the boat is now at a point where only the graphics and the canopy are left for the team to complete and that the ultimate aim is to see the boat at Coniston once again.
The boat recently went up to Loch Tad in Scotland for testing. Mr Smith said that he had hoped for the boat to have its first runs in Coniston back in 2018 and 2019 but permission to operate it there was taken away and then the pandemic pushed back testing even further.
The South Lakes MP Tim Farron recently weighed in on the issue after visiting the Ruskin Museum.
He said: “It was great to meet the team who are working so hard to get Bluebird back in Coniston and indeed back on Coniston.
“For Donald Campbell’s memory, his family members, the tale of Bluebird and for the area of Coniston, it is so essential that Bluebird comes home. “. Mr Smith claimed.
“In 2019 the plan was to come up to the water. It was a case of hand-over and leave, completely against what we spent the best part of twenty years working on.
“We never stopped working. We never stopped preparing it. We would love to run it in the water.”
Mr Smith compared Bluebird to other British engineering marvels such as Concorde and the Vulcan Bomber, which have drawn in crowds from all over the UK when they have flown.
“If it goes back in the museum without the team that brought it back to life it will deteriorate,” he said.
“We will offer a small museum a worldwide attraction. You have got a full-time dedicated team of experts. If it is not working people will go and see it once and not see it again and it will become an exhibit.”
Jon is a regular contributor to several outdoor living and lifestyle news publications, concentrating on The Lake District. Now living in Glenridding, Jon studied journalism at Edinburgh University.
