From Sea to Sky: Submarines That Fly

it will be much easier to do for an unmanned craft.. perhaps a flying torpedo type of thing. that way the thing can fly or be a rocket (cruise missile) and then dive into the water and go hunting as an electric torpedo.

the other solution is to have the pilots in a suit that breathes liquid and then flood the cabin. this eliminates the buoyancy, and increases the potential depth of the craft. As this would limit visibility, all interfacing should be suit HUD.

as for the shape of the craft... I imagine it like a surfboard that has a neutral lift, but if given a nose-up attitude, and wings, (swingout for flight) then it should fly, and still be streamlined for underwater travel, or surface landing. It can have a cleft on the underside where the waterjets expel water for surface or underwater travel. (streamlined intake on frontsides, for air and water)

the engines will be sealable jet engine, with small liquid fuel powered turbo waterjet.

sounds like fun.

The topic is "Sea to sky:Submarines that fly" and not "Sky to sea:Aircraft that submerge".

There is a world of difference, technologically speaking. A flying submarine is already equipped with a pressure hull, air generating/regenerating plant and habitability in the marine environment, whereas a submersible aircraft, is fragile, pressurized inside out!!

So, the focus should be on making the SUBMARINE combine AIRWORTHINESS to its SEAWORTHINESS.

It is easy to dive into the sea, quite another to be able to LEAP out of a very Viscous fluid medium!!

The design philosophy has to be radically different from what is proposed in this post!!

good point.

here is an interesting device.. that could have some potential. I have this book too. (but no opinion on the controversy.)

chris

Helpful as usual, chrisg288:

Just FYI, I had designed a super fast (100 knots-with a super heated skin and moving like a hot knife through butter)) One-man submarine in 1964 (46 years ago) as a 23 Yr. old dreamer), having all the flight characteristics of a fighter aircraft, purely for underwater use in Littoral areas.

This had glider aircraft capability to enable it to be air-dropped from about 100 meters altitude from long range low flying carrier aircraft as a squadron of six, each weighing about 1.5 tonnes, including batteries and other accessories.This was a dream project, happily scuttled as likely to fail, just as the Japanese one-man "Kamikaze"subs had, during the WWII.

The point here is that these are not new ideas. With the advancement of humanity, we should strive to do away with war as an option at all!! We have to live amicably and assert our creativity to enhance the quality of life of vast numbers of people far less priveleged than we are.

craft sounds very interesting. I agree about the elimination of war.

when I was a kid I dreamed of a 2-man enclosed boat that took in water, hydrolysed it into oxygen and hydrogen, and the engine ran on that... that was 1975...

before jetskis etc.. but it was just a sketch on paper..

but those sorts of ideas are very inspiring to a young person... to invent something that doesn't exist.

did you see my flying car, water train and duck-truck ideas?

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/416752/Re-Street-Legal-Airplanes

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/346478/Re-Select-Your-Favourite-Invention

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/356587/Re-Hurricane-Rescue-Vehicle-for-New-Orleans
http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/357229/Re-Hurricane-Rescue-Vehicle-for-New-Orleans

Chrisq288:

I think you have a fabulous imagination!!I've gone through all your renderings and it's mind boggling, feasible or not. Good engineering can take care of it all. If you have a backer, engineering is a cinch!!

DRN

thank you. a backer? what is that?

A person or institution with deep pockets, believing in the idea(s), willing to back (support by finance/funding) the idea(s) of course, for a good chunk of the benefits.

Similar to those who backed Columbus to discover India and landed up discovering the Americas!!

This begs a question that I have always wondered about. How deep must a submarine go to be invisible from the air? (I am only talking about VISUAL detection.)

This would depend on the clarity of the water, the surface turbulence and also on time of the day, cloudiness of the sky and also the seasons, as during monsoons (or rainy season), the turbidity of the water goes up substantially due to heavy silt laden rivers discharging into the seas/oceans. An average depth of about 100 meters, I guess, would be sufficient to make a submarine invisible even to a keen observer. Mostly, an observer in a low flying aircraft/helicopter (say 30 meters altitude), can see through the reflectivity of the sea surface.