A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
The world unlimited Water Speed Record is the officially recognised fastest speed achieved by a water-borne vehicle, irrespective of propulsion method. The current unlimited record is 511.11 km/h (317.59 mph), achieved by Australian Ken Warby in the Spirit of Australia in 1978.
Garfield Arthur "Gar" Wood was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and championship motorboat builder and racer who held the world water speed record on several occasions. He was the first man to travel over 100 miles per hour on water.
Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneously and the first person to travel at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) in a land vehicle. He died in an accident in 1930 shortly after setting a new world water speed record on Windermere in the Lake District, England. The Segrave Trophy was established to commemorate his life.
The Harmsworth Cup, popularly known as the Harmsworth Trophy, is a historically important British international trophy for motorboats.
The Blackburn B-1 Segrave was a 1930s British twin-engine four-seat touring aircraft built by Blackburn Aircraft.
The Short S.17 Kent was a British four-engined 15-seat biplane luxury flying boat airliner, designed and built by Shorts to meet a requirement from Imperial Airways for an aircraft with greater range than the Short Calcutta. The new aircraft was to have sufficient range to fly the stage from Mirabella, Crete, to Alexandria in Egypt without the need for refuelling stops in Italian colonial territory due to a political row which had led the Italian Government to ban British aircraft from its ports.
The Canadian Vickers Vancouver was a Canadian transport/patrol flying boat of the 1930s built by Canadian Vickers.
The Savoia-Marchetti S.66 was a 1930s Italian twin-hull flying boat designed and built by Savoia-Marchetti as an enlarged development of the S.55.
Miss England was the name applied to a series of speedboats used by Henry Segrave and Kaye Don to contest world water speed records in the 1920s and 1930s.
Miss England III was the last of a series of speedboats used by Henry Segrave and Kaye Don to contest world water speed records in the 1920s and 1930s. She was the first craft in the Lloyds Unlimited Group of high-performance speedboats created to make attempts on the water speed record, and consequently wore the registration 'K1' with the corresponding 'infinity' symbol.
Miss England I was the first of a series of speedboats used by Henry Segrave and Kaye Don to contest world water speed records in the 1920s and 1930s.
Kaye Ernest Donsky, better known by his nom de courseKaye Don, was an Irish world record breaking car and speedboat racer. He became a motorcycle dealer on his retirement from road racing and set up Ambassador Motorcycles.
Blue Bird K3 is a hydroplane powerboat commissioned in 1937 by Sir Malcolm Campbell, to rival the Americans' efforts in the fight for the world water speed record. She set three world water speed records, first on Lake Maggiore in September 1937, then later twice raising her own record.
The Saunders A.14 was a test aircraft for Saunders' new metal hull construction method, being a Supermarine Southampton fitted with the Saunders' fuselage. The methods tested worked well enough to be used in SARO flying boat production from 1928 to 1938.
The Dornier Do E was a small German flying boat of 1924, designed for reconnaissance missions.
The Short S.7 Mussel was a single-engined two-seat monoplane built by Short Brothers to test the performance of their duralumin monocoque floats. Two were built.
The Uskok class was a class of two motor torpedo boats built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy during the late 1920s. Named Uskok and Četnik, the boats were built by the Thornycroft Company based on their existing class of 17-metre-long (55 ft) Coastal Motor Boats, but were almost 1.5 metres (5 ft) longer. As their main armament they were equipped with cradles that carried two British-designed 456-millimetre (18 in) torpedoes, were fitted with hydrophones, and could carry depth charges instead of torpedoes if used in an anti-submarine role. The boats were lightly-built using mahogany, powered by two petrol engines, but lacked transverse bulkheads within the hull to mitigate leaks.
The Dornier Do S was a 22-passenger flying boat airliner flown in Germany in 1930.
The Lioré et Olivier LeO H-23 was a French military flying boat, primarily intended for coastal reconnaissance, though able to carry a small bomb load. Only one was built.
United Kingdom
