Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Close cycle gasoline engines

[Ppjanca@aol.com]

In early 1981 a company based in Scotland, BUE (British Underwater 
Engineering) converted Perry PC-1801 to run with the Stirling engine. PC-1801 
has two dry battery pods. The Starboard pod was stripped of batteries (Exide 
AC78's) and the Stirling engine drove a generator which in turn charged the 
batteries that were left in the other pod.  When I purchased the assets of 
BUE the only item excluded from the sale was the Stirling engine because it 
had been procured under a Scottish Development Grant and Stirling was not 
interested in selling it to me? The Scotties have never been too fond of 
Texans.
The BUE pilots had mixed opinions of the conversion but I would have given 
anything to at least give it a try in the warmer waters of the Caribbean.
FYI PC-1801 was a DLO boat with 987 FSW MOD and 650 FSW LOD. The pods on all 
of the 18 boats were dropable with hydraulic rams (operated by Enerpac hand 
pumps) and wet mateable power connectors to facilitate the drop. Some English 
"engineer" came up with a guillotine (sp?) to chop the cables if (for some 
reason) the plugs didn't uncouple and the pods were left hanging....the 
general feeling among the pilots was to let the engineer make the first cut 
with 120 VDC in the power cables.

Best Regards:
Phillip 
HyperTec, Inc.
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