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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.
Rocks sink, and Rocks Fly. Problem Solved!
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
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.
What? Oh sorry, wrong door.