DailyDirt: Traveling Fast Via Waterways
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
An enormous amount of cargo travels by boat, and historically, sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight. However, traveling over water isn't a very speedy mode of transportation (typically <20 mph), but there are some possible ways to go faster (though they don't come cheap). Here are just a few examples of sea-going ships that would definitely beat a slow boat to China.- Chinese researchers are working on making super-fast submarines that can travel over 750 mph. The vessels would rely on supercavitation (aka forming bubbles around the ship) and some kind of liquid-membrane technology to help launch and steer the sub. It's not clear how far along this submarine technology is, but it would be really amazing for a sub to cross the Pacific in a few hours. [url]
- Fast ships taking advantage of ground effect aerodynamics have existed for decades. Russian shipbuilders had many Ekranoplan designs that could fly low over water and efficiently transport large amounts of cargo. There was even a project with a "wing in ground" design for launching spacecraft from the equator. [url]
- Hydrofoils were also a specialty of Russian shipbuilding, and there could be a minor resurgence in passenger hydrofoils. Some Boeing 929 Jetfoils operate in Asia, but the complexity of hydrofoil vessels is a disadvantage for economical commercial transportation. [url]
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Filed Under: boats, cargo, ekranoplan, ground effect, hydrofoil, ships, submarines, supercavitation, transportation, wing in ground
Companies: boeing
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Hydrofoils in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta12lE7xiSk
http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=VQH1CxbAxCY
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Winged Hulls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2013_America%27s_Cup,_race_1,_mark_1.JPG
Sailing faster than the wind is not new either. I remember taking a Hobie Cat out, with four passengers (one more than the recommended limit), on a small lake in Massachusetts (where I was teaching a small craft camp for some organisation or other back in the late 70's) and had a head wind of around 8 knots (if you are familiar, the wind speed can be determined from the water surface conditions). As we gained speed the wind came around to the aft quarter. Eventually, we achieved a speed that exceeded the 'hull speed' of the pontoon designs. This caused what is known as tripping (where a hull driven faster than its design will 'submarine' or the bow wake vs the stern wake cause the bow to be pulled down while the stern wake is pushing up) at which point I let go of the sail, as I did not want to get wet at that time.
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Re: Hydrofoils in action
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Re: Winged Hulls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_wind
As I remember, and that is suspect, the hull speed of a Hobie 16 is around 24 knots, with an aft true wind speed of 8 knots, we overcame the true wind and 'created our own' wind. The effect of the apparent wind, as it moved forward with increased boat speed to over 24 knots, caused the eventual 'tripping' effect.
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750mph sub
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Re: Sailing faster than the wind is not new either
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Re: Re: Sailing faster than the wind is not new either
After sleeping on this, I have also remembered that it could not have been the late 1970's, as I was not in Massachusetts at that time, it had to be '74 or '75. Details, I know...
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Umm...
Re "wing in ground", I'm pretty sure you mean "wing in ground effect". Dirt is pretty draggy, y'know.
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Just waiting for another update from Anonymous Anonymous Coward
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