Slashdot Mirror
High-Tech Hydrofoil
An anonymous submitter sent in links to a super-sophisticated hydrofoil/catamaran which intends to break various water speed records for wind-powered vessels. Max speed: 45 knots. A couple of fansites have more photos of the craft in action.
OK, I have to go soon, so just a quick note:
, so 45 knots won't even get them the speed record. YPE claims a top speed of 54 knots, and to be honest I believe them. Even if they are Australians.
45 knots on a sailing hydrofoil with, like, cabin and somewhere to make a cup of coffee? I think not. Without going into details just accept that I went to University *just* to study this problem (I came to computing through writing fluid dynamics code) and you can take it from me that it won't be happening.
Thing 2: Current speed sailing record is 46.52 knots, held by Yellow Pages Endeavour (http://www.mko.freesurf.fr/innovoile/YPE_e.html)
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
I love it, maybe we can make the foil into semiconducters, write an assembler language, then port linux and cluster it
"If a man watches 3 football games in a row he should be declared leagaly dead" - A
It's an interesting thought, but I think you're missing the point of supercavitation. Supercavitation is only truly effective (and truly possible) with vessels that are completely submerged in water (eg. submarines, torpedoes and the like). It works by creating a renewable pocket of air around the vessel, so that very little of the liquid touches the surface of the vessel. This reduces the vessel's viscous drag (bearing in mind that the resistance of water is somewhere in the order of 1400 times that of air) and allows it to travel much faster. This isn't the sort of thing that can't be done with a partly submerged vessel, as is the case here.
If you're interested in learning more about the specifics of supercavitation, then is an article on the Scientific American website and two articles on Slashdot (here and here). It should be interesting to see what the possible future applications of this technology would be. As always any constructive criticism is welcome.
Self Bias Resistor
----------
When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer our friend.
There is a page on the Alstom site (an official sponsor of the project) here.
Hydrofoils are a funny thing. They still operate on the theories (whatever they are) on hyrdrodynamics, so they are still considered boats and not hover crafts. You can actually get your own personal-type model. Click here for more info.
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.