Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] RE: airfoils

[VBra676539@aol.com]

Alec and all,

As an addendum to this, Perry built hollow aluminum airfoil sections for dive 
planes and rudders on the later subs. I trained initially on the old PC-8, 
which had flat slab control surfaces, and I can attest to how well the more 
sophisticated surfaces worked in comparison. The airfoil sections had flat 
plates welded to the sides to improve efficiency and were hydraulically 
activated.

If the sub was moving forward at neutral buoyancy, and you tipped the planes 
up, the sub would lift. Period. No discussion. Up she comes. A couple of 
square feet of dive planes would lift an 8 ton 12-boat off the bottom with no 
effort at all. Our rudders were the same, measured about 42" high by roughly 
a foot front to back. We turned 36 X 36 bronze wheels through reduction gears 
and when you swung the rudder over, she turned, and I mean right now.

The earlier boats used plexiglas plate for planes and a composite flat 
material for the rudders. They worked okay, but not nearly as well as the 
airfoil shapes, which were a pain to build and horrible expensive, but really 
worth their weight in hot dogs when push came to shove. I'm planning on 
planes and rudder for my K this summer, so I'm going to have to figure this 
out for real. I sure wish I'd kept some of those prints around from back 
then. Hopefully I can work something out in fiberglas which will then become 
a market sensation in the psubs biz and make me jillions.

Vance