Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] question for Alec Smythe

[CurtisUehara@aol.com]

Alec,
Thank you for your answer.  I think I know what you mean when you say underwater flight.  You mean the Solo is very sleek and will swim like a fast fish?  I think so too.  Your submarine looks very beautiful.  I see one that looks like it at the beginning of the television show Enterprise when they are playing the music.  Very space age!
Why don't you paint your submarine with paint made for boats?  There is marine kind primer and paint made for metal boats in salt water.  Why does a submarine need special paint?  I don't know.

Just now I was thinking about your submarine Solo and another bad thought came to me.  I'am sorry but I worry about these things because I am trying for better understand submarines.  I do know about the ocean and about diving and I wonder what will happen if your submarine starts to leak?  If you are dived maybe 60 feet down will your pneumatic open the hatch under water pressure?

I think you will have to equalize pressure inside the sub first.  Your hull looks big.  Maybe 30 or 40 feet volume?  At 60 feet down you must add two times that much air to equalize.  And more if the Solo dives deeper.  Even if you open a scuba tank inside the submarine it will take time to let out all the air and you will need more than one tank.  While the sub stay leaking it gets heavier and sinks faster so you need more air to equalize pressure and open the hatch.  Can you do it fast enough? I don't know.  If not I think the Solo will keep going down and you can not get the hatch open at all and you could be trapped.  This scares me to think of it.  What can a person do if this kind of thing happens?  I don't know.

Thank you, Curtis Uehara