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Researchers To Build Underwater Airplane
coondoggie writes to tell us that DARPA seems to still be having fun with their funding and continues to aim for the "far out." The latest program, a submersible airplane, seems to have been pulled directly from science fiction. Hopefully this voyage to the bottom of the sea is of the non-permanent variety. "According to DARPA: 'The difficulty with developing such a craft come from the diametrically opposed requirements that exist for an airplane and a submarine. While the primary goal for airplane designers is to try and minimize weight, a submarine must be extremely heavy in order to submerge underwater. In addition, the flow conditions and the systems designed to control a submarine and an airplane are radically different, due to the order of magnitude difference in the densities of air and water.'"
Airplanes underwater??? This is crazy talk! Next they will wants subs that fly!
to build a flying submarine - I mean after all, if we made a brick fly (an old saying about the F-4 Phantom).
I don't have anything to say, but everybody else is posting stuff with "Steve Fosset" as the title.
Sounds like a few too many people at DARPA liked 'The Phantom Menace' a little too much.
Rocks sink, and Rocks Fly. Problem Solved!
I'm not sure, but I believe those "underwater airplanes" already exist.. and are called "submarines".
MABASPLOOM!
I don't have anything to say either.
This was Fossett's project I believe. They already have a design and partial prototype yes?
I think they've built a prototype, yes. Unfortunately, the test of the prototype of Fossett's follow-on project, an airplane that can fly underground, ended in disaster.
Too soon?
The enemies of Democracy are
Isn't this the same exact kinda thing that Steve Fossett et-al were building (completed?)
Yep. The first test pilots were John Denver and John F. Kennedy Jr. Apparantly the tricky part is coming back up...
I'll have an order of magnitude and a side effect, please. To go.
I'm waiting for the sonic boom.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
You gotta keep scientists off the streets and out of trouble somehow.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
My disgust for it grows geometrically every time I read it.
Well, i have lots to say!
I just don't feel like saying it.
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
When I was in the Navy, my Captain was a submariner and my XO (2nd in command) was a helicopter pilot.
These two guys didn't get along.
In one (of many) knock down drag 'em out verbal exchanges the two had, the Captain yelled at the XO,
"There are more helicopters at the bottom of the sea then there are submarines in the sky!!"
http://www.htcherocentral.com
So, I hear the prototype airplane that flew underground, lost power and crashed into the surface?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
What? Oh sorry, wrong door.
that will fly like a lead zeppelin. What next? Roll-down windows for submarines?
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.