I wonder if the the tail fins act as air intakes when the boat is awash. I was
originally planning on ducting air from just being the forward cabin of my sub which will be above the water line while the aft is still awash, but that plan called for
purging a large
volume of
water from the intake
before starting the engine. My new plan is to put a big tail fin just over the engine that will act as a
snorkel. The alternative would be to use a large volume of
precious compressed air to blow the water from the hull.
I am not jealous of their
dream,
because I am getting to live mine, (God bless the USA); but having their budget and
talent would not suck at all :)
--Doug J
www.submarineboat.com
It's a pretty interesting topic - thanks for the photo links. Yeah, I'm with you on those questions about dry versus wet.
Some more:
* Does the Coast Guard or oil industry
want a combination speedboat-submarine?
I can see this being interesting for the SEALs and us recreational underwater types but otherwise it seems like a Tom Swift or Dirk Pitt-inspired business plan.
* What kind of planing performance do you get carrying enough ballast to submerge this baby?
This is really your dry vs. wet question. Is there a lot of horsepower involved? Or are we missing some clever trick, as the article hints at?
* Shouldn't you ditch those vertical tails fins to reduce visibility/radar signature? Granted, it's a prototype...
* And would this
minisub be capable of riding
piggyback on our attack subs?
And of course I ask these critical
questions mostly because I'm jealous that these guys are "living the dream"! :-)
Paul