Relative Speeds

It would be nice to think that the LSR was way ahead of the speeds of the faster aeroplanes. In fact, this is not so, as the table below indicates. I have included the Water Speed Record for interest and have not taken the list beyond the outbreak of WW2, because after that jet engines and three-wheeled cars entered the LSR field and another war was to again accelerate aeroplane-pace.

NB. I have quoted only officially accepted records and ignored annual interim increases of speed.

As Great Britain held the ASR in 1931 with the Rolls-Royce-engined Supermarine S6B seaplane and remembering the recent Battle of Britain celebrations, perhaps my old couplet may be quoted: “The Battle of Waterloo may or may not have been won on the playing fields of Eton. But the outcome of the Battle of Britain was definitely decided over Calshot Water.” WB.