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[PSUBS-MAILIST] Some questions
Hi,
I'm not a psub builder (though I may be one day), but I'm trying to
understand a bit about how ambitious amateur tinkerers build things
that outsiders often consider too difficult or too dangerous for anyone
but highly trained professionals. I have some questions about psubs and
their construction that I hope people on the list can help me with. I'm
particularly interested in the high end of what people build - the
deepest diving, longest endurance, etc. I realize that psubs span a
huge range, so I'm focussing on the more expensive and time consuming
projects. That said, the questions:
Roughly how much time goes into a typical ambitious psub? Only psubs
that actually make it to the water count - I'm sure there are some with
thousands of man-hours on them that are abandoned half-finished :-(
Roughly how much money goes into a psub at the expensive end of the
homebuilt range? (for concreteness say 50+% of the work done by the
owner)
Which projects constitute the high end? - I'm aware of Carsten's
project (WOW!) but it seems like there's rather a big gap between that
and the next most ambitious project - am I overlooking something? I
realize that "ambitious" is a little ill-defined - there are multiple
figures of merit (depth, number of persons, time under water, etc.) -
I'm interested in your opinions about what the important figures of
merit are (realizing that it's subjective) - part of my interest is not
just the subs themselves, but the community of builders as well.
I realize there's likely to be some fuzziness in the answers, since
with things like this there is often some blurring of the lines between
amateur and professional (Lest I offend anyone: I use "amateur" in the
original sense of one motivated primarily by a passion for the work at
hand, not with the connotation of being unskilled or incompetent). I've
read the FAQ and the last six weeks of the archives to try to get a
feel for the community, and I must say that apart from the odd off
topic posting I'm impressed with the level of the discussion.
Thanks for your help,
......Andrew
--
Dr. Andrew Case, PhD.
Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics,
University of Maryland, College Park
"If the United States tries nation building, it's got to [have] at the
very top of its agenda a separation of church and state" - Pat Robertson