Our Search For The Perfect Submarine I have always found submarines to be a fascinating subject. One thing which is very important for submarines is stealth. The way a submarine achieves its stealth is being very quiet. The slightest noise from a submarine can lead to detection. This noise can come from anywhere and the hardest thing to cloak is the engine and prop. The United States spend billions on getting submarines as quiet as they could. The Swedes, to the horror of the U.S. Navy built such a quiet submarine it was able to get to our aircraft carriers without detection and it only cost about a quarter or less of the cost of a nuclear sub. The story goes it was a diesel electric sub with what is known as a Stirling AIP. The Stirling is a type of very quiet with air-independent propulsion, which turned out to be quieter than our quietest nuclear subs. Just imagine, how many of these we could build at the price. We decided to get the Swedes to rent us one for a while, so we could examine it. I bet we had to do a lot of arm bending to get this to happen. I, for one, would have been very interested in what we promised them or threatened them with to get this deal. For a long time, I have been saying. we need a fleet of diesel submarines to augment our nuclear ones. This would give us way more subs for our money and if we can build super silent ones, there is no reason not to do this. We need to increase our naval fleet. The numbers of ships has been decreasing and we just can’t afford to let this keep happening. It is believed this submarine can remain under water for about 40 days and has a range of about 6,500 miles on a tank of fuel. The idea for submarines has been around in one way or another for thousands of years. Alexander the Great went under the water in a sort of diving bell. While the ancients thought about devices to get them under the water, in the late Middle Ages drawings of undersea craft were created. We don’t know if any were tried out, but we can see by the drawings the inventors were using hand powered screws for propulsion, and things like leather bags to hold or expel air for buoyancy. They seem to have the right idea. In the 1600s a test of a primitive submarine was performed in front of an audience and the king. The inventor sat on the bottom of the Thames River for 3 hours and then resurfaced to the excitement of the crowd who most likely thought he had died. Early on a device was used which was a quicksilver barometer. You were able to measure the depth with it. The history of the submarine is divided into primitive and modern. In 1690 an inventor of a primitive submarine figured out saltpeter could be used to refresh the air in a submarine. Things were starting to come together. When the South invented the submarine Hunley during the American Civil War, it was hand cranked turning a propeller, they didn’t seem to have any way to refresh the air. The boat was able to stick a torpedo into the side of a wooden ship. Several crews died before they believed they got it right, and on the last try they were successful in sinking a Northern ship but it also destroyed the crew of the Hunley. A year after that war was finished a German submarine demonstrated a successful dive, drove under the water and resurfaced on command of the crew. For about the next forty odd years, submarines kept getting better. The very first American submarine was the Turtle. It was designed by David Bushnell before the Revolutionary War and could hold one person. It was actually used in an attack on the British ship Eagle but failed in that attack and every other one. It is thought by many the first submarine which could be called modern was built by a man named John P. Holland in 1900. The submarine finally had dual propulsion. Just like some submarines today it had an internal combustion engine to run on the surface and a battery powered electric engine for sailing under the water. When it cruised on the surface it could recharge its batteries. Personally, I believe the idea for what a modern submarine should be like should go to Jules Verne. In his story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, he was incredibly accurate in his depiction of a submarine. It is hard to believe he could have imagined so accurately what a future submarine would be like. Nuclear energy has enabled us to create submarines which need no fuel for all or much of their lifetimes. They are also fast for under sea boats. When the airplane came into use, the idea for a submarine was being modified in the minds of inventors. They dreamed about a submersible airplane, which could go under the water like a submarine and also take off from under the water. The recent sightings of UAPs doing this must have affirmed it was possible, but as far as I know, we have yet to create a flying submarine. There have been designs from time to time but that seems to be as far as things have gotten. One of several things has to become a reality before this can happen. We either need to invent a material with is extremely light, but also as strong as a submarine hull today. If we can’t do this, we need to invent engines so powerful for our flying submarine they would be able to lift far more weight than anything anyone has. If we can’t do that, we need to invent an antigravity engine to power our craft which would have enough power to again, handle tremendous weight. The Germans in World War 2, had a design they created, but never tried to build it. I think they realized it was far too heavy. It looked more like some kind of flying tank. One has to think some day we will succeed in creating a flying submarine and possibly a spaceship that will be able to do it all, like flying in space, in the atmosphere, diving into the ocean and taking off from the water. I believe it is only a matter of time before this happens, as long as we haven’t destroyed ourselves in some stupid war by that time.
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