Iconic Bluebird K7 visits National Motor Museum at Beaulieu

The jet-powered hydroplane went on display at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and was surrounded by visitors during its four-hour stopover.

Bluebird had earlier paid a private visit to the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Poole.

The club is custodian of the World Water Speed Trophy, which has been presented to the fastest boat on water for the past 87 years.

Bluebird visited Beaulieu on its way back to its new home, the Ruskin Museum near Coniston Water in the Lake District.

Donald Campbell was attempting to break his own water speed record in 1967 when he was killed on Coniston Water in the Lake District (Image: PA)

Donald Campbell, 45, was attempting to break his own water speed record at Coniston on January 4 1967 when the vessel flipped into the air and disintegrated, killing him instantly.

The hydroplane is thought to have been travelling at about 300mph when the crash happened.

In 2001 the wreckage was recovered by engineer Bill Smith, who restored it with the help of volunteers at the Bluebird Project in North Shields.

In March this year the boat was collected by Ruskin Museum staff and transported the 147 miles to Coniston, which Campbell’s daughter, Gina, describes as his "spiritual home".

The museum is a short distance from where Campbell is buried in Coniston Cemetery.

Vehicles on display at Beaulieu include the Bluebird CN7, in which he set a new world land speed record in Australia in 1964.

Gina Campbell ran the Bluebird restaurant at Quay Street, Lymington, in the 1990s.

One of her proudest possessions was her father's racing mascot, a teddy bear called Mr Whoppit, who was thrown clear when Bluebird K7 crashed.

But she was forced to keep him in a vault after an insurance firm said he was too valuable to remain on display at the restaurant.