[PSUBS-MAILIST] Airless Tires for Amphibious Submersibles

["Brent Hartwig" <brenthartwig@hotmail.com>]

I've been thinking about and designing amphibious submersibles in the basic shape of a car or SUV for a few years now and always hit into trouble when it came to the tires. As the pressure increases with depth the tire would loose it's bead seal. So I was thinking about the pressure sensors and variable pressure changers like on a AMC Hummer.  Even with this you have to added buoyancy of the tires down low where you don't want it.  The extra buoyancy also requires you to make an already heavy street legal vehicle even heavier. This makes your engine efficiency worse whether you are using a gas, diesel, air, or electric propulsion on the road. 

Here is an airless tire that I think would be great to use on such a vehicle called the Tweel. By the time these become available I hope to be ready for them.

http://www.fastcoolcars.com/airless-tires.htm

http://www.michelinman.com/difference/releases/pressrelease01102005a.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHWzSVFAluU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzPmLUta-_M&mode=related&search=

I'm not so much interest in running a submersible on the sea, or lake bed like an early Simon Lake submarine, but you could if you wanted to.  I mostly want wheels for land use and soft landing gear with suspension for landing on the sea, river or lake beds.  It would be a blast to run your sub into one side of a river or lake and drive out the other side traveling on the bottom. This would save you the cost of a trailer and the vehicle pulling it as well as not having to find a place to part your vehicle and trailer then walk back to your sub. I've also been thinking about a design for retracting the wheels with a cover like on a plane on these amphibious subs, so they would have less hydrodynamic drag on the water surface as well as below it.  Then when you approach the bottom you can bring out the landing gear wheels to touch down softly.

http://www.aquada.co.nz/

When I first saw the Rinspeed Splash, which is a amphibious hydrofoils car that goes reaches a top speed of 200 km/h. on the road, and approximately 28 knots in boat mode. That is fast enough for water skiing or knee boarding.  Then once in hydrofoil mode it can travel at a rate of about 45 knots in calm water. I thought wouldn't that basic design be great as a submersible as well. 

http://www.rinspeed.com/pages/content/frames_e.htm

Regards

Brent Hartwig

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