Australian Aircraft Designer, Colin Winton

I originally wrote an article on Colin and Scott Winton for the July 2009 issue of this magazine. That article raised many questions, such as were Colin Winton racing hydrofoil and speedboat designer and Colin Winton the aircraft designer one and the same? I recently had a call from Colin Winton who confirmed that he was indeed one and the same. The article here is re-write to incorporate the wealth of information supplied by Colin. Colin is living happily in Queensland on Howie Island with his wife Mickie and has slowed down a little, although he did say something in passing about an electric car. I wonder how fast it will go?

Colin was born in Bayswater WA in 1931 and lived there until he was four and then lived in Fremantle. In 1945 when he was fourteen he moved to Victoria with his parents .
Colin designed and built his first racing boat in 1959 and it broke the 50ci and 75ci Australian speed record at 60mph (96km/h.) Only the propeller touched the water for the one kilometre course and was the start of ground effect surfacing prop machines. It was powered by 500cc motorboat engine.
Colin's next was the 'Wild One' that set an Australian record at 85mph. (136.8 km/h), and held the lap record at Albert Park Lake at 60mph. The Wild One had a Ford Prefect 1200cc Engine, was 11 feet long and 6 feet wide. The Wild One was the beginning of racing boats and Hydrofoils becoming Colin's sole occupation. Then came the 'Screaming Eagle.' It was a surfacing prop design with a Holden Engine. Nobody except Colin

could handle the Screaming Eagle so he was the driver at the Australian Championships and he won convincingly. A month later Colin would claim the Australian Record at 78.4mph (126.2km/h). It would have gone faster but was found after to have had two broken valve springs. The record still stands today.

Next came a 2.5L runabout, Coom-Bra. A good friend of Colin drove the boat and said it was not fast enough, Colin said get in the back and gained 4mph to claim the State Victoria and the Australian Record for its class.
Next Colin designed and drove a Hydro called the Assassin and won State Championship and in 1973 designed Stampede with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine V 12 with 2000hp. In an attempt on the Australian Record for it's class Stampede did 171mph (275.2km/h) one way but lost propeller and could not complete the return run. Stampede was sold to Stan Jones
who took out the engine and asked Colin to design and build a new Hydroplane which was called 'Solo' because it was sponsored by Solo drink. Solo was 32 feet long and 16 feet wide.Solo claimed the Australian class at 160mph (257.5kl/h). Solo was taken to America to race in the Gold Cuppers in 1973-74. Stan arranged a 4000hp Merlin Engine from Budweiser and Colin tested it for problems. At 300kmh down the straight a rumble started so I backed off a little and the Skeg broke cutting a hole in the bottom. Colin told Stan he would never drive a big Hydroplane again, and he never did. Jones had been planning and building a new hydroplane - a hull which, based on the years of trial and error with the old Stampede - could   Continued