More Flying Subs...

...now with drawings and stuff!

From DEFENSE TECH

Flying Submarine or Submerging Seaplane?

The answer is simple: Submarines cannot fly, but seaplanes can submerge -- if you build them properly.

That's what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking to develop. A recent Request for Proposal (RFP) from DARPA calls for a submersible aircraft [that] would combine the key capabilities of three different platforms: (1) the speed and range of an aircraft; (2) the loiter capabilities of a boat; and (3) the stealth of a submarine. "By combining the beneficial characteristics the and operating modes of each platform, DARPA hopes to develop a craft that will significantly enhance the United States tactical advantage in coastal insertion missions," according to the RFP.
The irony of the RFP is that the U.S. Navy was developing such a craft some 45 years ago.

The objectives issued by DARPA are for a vehicle that would have an airborne tactical radius of 1,000 nautical miles, a low-level flight radius of 100 nautical miles (which may leverage surface effects), and a submerged tactical radius of 12 nautical miles. The sum of these must be achieved within eight hours. Endurance on the surface has to be 72 hours in sea states up to five between inserting and extracting personnel. The craft's payload objective is eight men and their equipment with a total cargo weight of 2,000 pounds.
DARPA has identified the major challenges to the project as (1) weight, (2) fluid flow regime, (3) structure, (4) lifting surface geometry, and (5) power and energy storage. These factors force the consideration of a seaplane that can submerge as opposed to a "submarine that can fly." The relatively light construction of an aircraft can be submerged to shallow depths, and to even great depths with internal pressurization. But submarine-like vehicles, built to withstand greater depths, are too heavy for consideration...

Read the rest here

Still no mention of the Seaview and her Flying Subs

Return of the Flying Sub

I you'll recall about a month ago we discussed all things Flying Sub (see THIS POST )



Now our good friends at Aviation Week have decided to weigh in with their two pence about the prospects of an actual working Flying Submarine, or as DARPA refers to it, a "Submersible Airplane".

Still no mention from them of the "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" flying sub...perhaps the coolest thing ever to appear on TV besides a bra-less Jaclyn Smith.


Pearls before swine...I tell ya'.

Flying Subs? Doesn't Anyone Remember Anything?!?

Via The Danger Room

This article from The Register

DARPA seeks Special Forces submersible aeroplane
Wet doesn't have to mean slow any more

By Lewis Page •

Posted in Government, 6th October 2008 14:58 GMT

Say what you like about the US military's technology planners, they don't flinch from a challenge. The latest ploy out of the American warboffinry machine is nothing less than an aircraft which can fly underwater.

The upcoming aerosubmarine plan was announced on Friday, under the rather uninspiring name "Submersible Aircraft". The idea, few regular readers will be surprised to hear, comes from DARPA* - the Pentagon wingnut-tech bureau, which is plainly looking to take the concept of flying below the radar literally to a whole new level...

Love the smart ass tone of the British author. Just for that, you limey prick we're going to make a flying sub and you won't be allowed to use it...so there.