Here's one for you all you Yacht type folks...this is going to be a must have for the up coming year, every Yacht owner worth his salt will have to have one of these...a way to truly go ashore! https://autos.yahoo.com/news/iguana-yachts-world-first-cool-amphibious-boat-123027079.html
In my other life, I developed a Variable Geometry Venturi for jet pumps that worked much like the afterburner on a modern fighter jet, sans thrust vectoring. Many months of testing yielded positive gains in a surfacing environment and a prototype vehicle was delivered to the Special Warfare Combatant Craft division where a crewman promptly used 100 feet of beach as a high speed brake, packing the pump full of sand, taking our aperture out of the picture, sorta speak. A year later, with a little influence from previous research by Kelly Johnson on the SR-71 Blackbird project, I designed a VGV with no moving parts. Moral of the story: No amount of in-house testing can prepare a product for real world use. When it comes to boats, KISS rules, especially in a salt-water environment. The Iguana has over 700 parts!
Tom got a nice closeup of Iguana at FLIBS 2012 http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/boat-shows-yacht-watching/19781-fort-lauderdale-international-boat-show-2012-flibs-5.html#post161656
Its a toy, its cool, I wouldn't want it and I do not like what it does to the beaches... Would I be wrong to say its a "What the hell, as long as it's cool I don't care about anything" toy?
This venturi pump piqued my interest. Without thrust vectoring, would it's application be for a center booster waterjet in a triple waterjet application? Would you be able to use the "afterburner" as a sort of "variable pitch" function to act as an overdrive at higher speeds when the resistance curve has flattened out?
Hi, This if ever actually built and operated will make everything to date look kinda slow. Chinese Supersonic Submarine Could go 3,600 MPH, in Theory
It would be easy to locate and convert to scrap though. It kind of negates what submarines are supposed to be about doncha think?
It could be, but this pump used a diverter for directional thrust aft of the venturi. It's basically the same concept, although our pump already had a variable pitch impellor and stator vanes. Because the pump was operating in a highly aerated surfacing environment, as speed increased the amount of water available to be converted to thrust was reduced, therefore a variable geometry venturi was developed to reduce the diameter of expulsion orifice. This worked in conjunction with an intake gullet bladder that expanded to increase negative pressure (vacuum) at the intake.
You are right Marmot. Cavitation isn't your friend when cloaked, but in fact - and contrary to most boater's beliefs - cavitation IS our friend, especially when you add the 'super' prefix. Lots of research on this at Carderock's LCC years ago. I may have been there. Juliet Marine is just getting up to speed, but little do they know, there are lots of knots left... Juliet Marine's Ghost Boat
Weapons aren't a sector I worked in, nor am I privy to, but super-cavitating torpedoes have achieved speeds in excess of 200 mph.
So, in theory, if a super cavitating, 3600 mph submarine launches a super cavitating torpedoe, then he better slow down a bit. Sorry, it reminds me of the comedian asking if your car goes the speed of light and you turn your headlamps on, what happens.
I agree with Carl. 700 moving parts is too many, especially for something that will be in constant contact with water or whatever you are tied to. I like this solution better
I saw one if those dinghies with training wheels in action at Staniel cay earlier this year, clearly the owner had mobility issues had to be brought on dry land. Looked cool but like so many cool things it looked unpractical. Took forever to transition, slow and cumbersome on land. Did attract attention though....
It seems inventors gave up on a car/plane hybrids for a while to do a bit of car/boat ones. Because a combination of fresh milk and pickled tomatoes is supposed to work out entirely different then one of fresh milk and pickled cucumbers
They tried that in the 1960's with the amphicar and it doesn't look like these are going to be anymore successful......
Meh I hate them making me feel so green. I only tried dairy and pickle in late 90's... But then again, most genius ideas looked awful at some point. I do hope one day we get at a form of "universal locomotion" which is gonna make the difference between a car, a ship, a hover and probably even a full-altitude plane moot. And to get there we need the research. Funded by beta-testers. So in a sense, for the greater good, we should probably advertise this frankenthing.
Perhaps a newer version will do the trick. WaterCar Panther - The Most Fun Vehicle on the Planet! - www.WaterCar.com - YouTube