[PSUBS-MAILIST] Sailing (Re: Psub for Lew)

["Michael B. Holt" <mholt@richmond.edu>]

Captain Nemo wrote:
>
> Howsabout a little more info on how you see that one working?

In 1964, the British Sub-Aqua Club produced the plans to a glider 
that a diver would ride in a prone position.  With long wings, it 
would soar and glide just like an airplane.  

In the later 60s, the USN developed an idea for a sub that would
glide the same way.  The planned first mission was a glide to
8000 feet and back to the surface, several times, on a trip
from San Diego to Hawaii.

Neither, it seems, were ever built. 

The sailing idea is a development of that.  Let fly a couple
of long spars supporting real sails, and let the current 
pull along a tiny sub.  It would not work in rivers and in
restricted waters, but in the open ocean it'd be slow,
awkward and less expensive than nuclear for long distances.
The physics of it would be the same as the physics of any
sailboat. 

  



Mike