Re: Welcome new member.

["Allan E. Gaines" <exfloridians@ecsu.campuscwix.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: VBra676539@aol.com <VBra676539@aol.com>
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 08:13 PM
Subject: Re: Welcome new member.



>Allan,
>Geodesic subs were studied in the 60s. I have seen a model of an enormous
geo
>hull that used an intricate steel cage and angular cast glass panels--it
had
>about a million miles of joints in it, and thus about a million miles of
leak
>potential and was never carried beyond the study stage. I know that the
Comex
>Moana hulls were built like geodesic structures with large dome port frames
>tied together with some kind of expensive steel pieces cut into sort of
>curved diamond pieces. The hulls are elegant and pretty to look at--had
great
>strength and reasonable payload for their size--but were very expensive and
>time consuming to build. They experimented with AC thrusters and other
things
>foreign to us Yankee truck drivers in the North Sea, and I don't think more
>than one or two were built.



    I tried searching for "Comex" and "Moana", but didn't come up with
anything.  Any more info. you can give me?  [Thanks.]


>I like your RV concept. How about a Stirling engine backup with a PEM fuel
>cell? And an all girl crew. Change your name to Nemo .... ?



    A while back I looked up some sub stuff on the internet regarding subs
with AIP (air independent propulsion), and found some references to
somebody's Navy using stirlings.  They used some kind of closed
oxygen/ethanol boiler<?> to generate heat to run the stirlings.  Building
a homebuilt closed boiler using oxygen as an oxidizer seems a bit
daunting.  However, barring that I think using stirlings would be efficient
because they could operate on the surface or underwater.  [That's also why
I'm attracted to using fuel cells.  With diesel-electric propulsion, as soon
as you submerge your diesels become humungous paper weights. <g>
Fuel cells can work in either environment... just use atmospheric air
on the surface, and compressed (or liquid) oxygen below the surface.]]

    All girl crew?  I don't know... let me think about that one for awhile.

    OKAY! <G>