TheByte

Mikael

October 9, 2008 6:05 AM PDT
By Mark Rutherford


The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office is looking for a submersible aircraft design and invites you to come up with a concept.

Performance requirements call for an aircraft that can cover 1,850km by air or 185km by sea, or 22km underwater in eight hours or less. And this is not some miniature pool hopper; DARPA wants it to be able to carry a crew of eight and a 2,000lb payload.

Speculation on design suggests an old-school snorkel to provide air supply for the power plant while your flying fish is in submerged mode, but don't rule out nuclear power or dilithium crystal for that matter.


Continued...

The Artist

Hehhe..the world is starting to look like the movies

Monster

Interesting challenge indeed. The basic shape of a plane should work ok under the sea since they have a low drag shape. How deep does the subarine has to go? Weight will become an issue if the subarine has to dive deep into the sea, all those reinforce materials won't be light weight. And in order to fly, the wings will have to be large enough to generate enough lift to carry the heavy weight of the thing. A large wing will definitely cause sever mobility as well as structural issues when the thing is under water. You do want to minimise the surface area of the design so less parts of the thing will be subjected to the high pressure under water.

Mikael

I believe the main emphasis is on the flying abilities and the possibility to operate under water will be a secondary function. As it will use a snorkel, it probably can't go very deep.

Some more info I found: Researchers want a submersible airplane | NetworkWorld.com Community