The name of the
cars and
boats in which father and son Sir
Malcolm Campbell and
Donald Campbell have set the
world records for
speed on land and on water.
Malcolm Campbell took the name for his car after seeing Maeterlinck's play The Bluebird. He exceeded 300 mph on 3 September 1935
Donald Campbell died in his Bluebird K7 on 4 January 1967, on Coniston Water in Cumberland, at the age of 46. The Bluebird has just been rediscovered by divers and filmed by a BBC crew; it was raised on 8 March 2001.
He reached over 300 mph on his first pass, then turned around, but he had not waited for his wake to settle. The Bluebird hit it and somersaulted catastrophically.
Bluebird Electric is the name of a modern British contender for the land speed record for electric cars, driven by Donald's nephew Don Wales.