Shawn, But can you just get the pressure hull built in
time for the up coming convention!!??
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 8:08
PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Flying Sub
"SOLO" Stability
Man, that sounds
like another sub I can’t wait to see materialize. I can see a “flying sub
convention” some years down the road. D’you have a start date for
construction?
Umm ... does "later" count!? ;-) No. Thanks to largely to
this group, directly and indirectly, I have a lot of the larger pieces
mostly defined and designed, but not enough to project when I'll get the rest
figured out. I've never designed a sub before, much less
an "unconventional" one, so I have no prior experience upon which to
even guess at how long it'll take to figure out the smaller bits necessary to
get the bigger bits to work together the way I want.
Part of the problem ... or the blessing as the case may be ... is that
the design keeps changing and mutating based upon the odd bits I find in my
copious and voracious research, what's worked and not worked with members of
the group and other subs, and everyone's unique assortment of experiences and
perspectives that you bring so openly to the table. *That's* what makes
this group so valuable and intellectually productive ... even if it means an
ongoing series of redesigns.
Being from "outside the field", I'm also not intimately familiar with all
of the hardware. I keep juggling the cost and availability of "off the
shelf" components (and potentially having to retrofit to make them work for a
purpose to which they may or may not have been designed), with the time
and potentially greater cost to purpose-build exactly what I want ... provided
I have the knowledge and skills to do so, or am willing to expend the time to
learn how to do.
For example, I know that I *want* a hemispherical viewport. But
I've also defined placement locations and sizes for a series of flat
viewpoints in a hemispherical endcap as an alternative. But I won't know
until I can source what each path would cost before I can actually commit to
one and all the decisions that may result therefrom. And I can't
evaluate that until I can obtain Stanislaw's Acrylics book, read it and
evaluate what I'd need to produce my own. I've built a precision
kiln before so ... [shrug] so many interrelated questions to answer yet.
I've also started a 1:6 scale model to help me better
visualize how things go together. CAD and Inventor and similar
software are great and I wouldn't want to do this without them but
sometimes I just have to put it on paper or hold it in my hands for it to
become real enough for me to overcome some design blocks. It should
also locate manufacturing/construction problems by forcing me to
essentially practice building it before I attempt to do it for real.
Will post pictures as the design comes along.
Warm Regards
Shawn
*****
"Call nothing thy own except thy soul.
Love
not what thou art, but only what thou may become.
Do not pursue pleasure,
for thou may have the misfortune to overtake it...
Live in the vision of
that one for whom great deeds are done ..."
Man of LaMancha, D.
Wasserman