Our fading Industrial Age delivered steam engines, railroads, ships, electricity, radio, telephones, television, airplanes, space ships, antiseptics, CAT, MRI AND PET scanners, endoscopy, genetics and thousands of other discoveries that when unveiled evoked cries of "magic"!
We know from our history books about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Memory -- along with archeological remains from the distant past -- the pyramids of Egypt, for example -- affect us all in the way we interpret our present world.
Visionary Arthur C. Clarke, who contributed to the evolution of radar, also, 55 years ago created the concept of geo-stationary satellites (in contrast to earth's satellite the non-geo-stationary moon) which today enable the world to watch TV. Here is one of Clarke's many perceptive comments:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
As magical as those 18th, 19th and 20th century wonders were, get prepared for things you never saw in a dream or in science-fiction. The Age of Super Wonders.
Since the first attempt by the Dutch in the 17th century, many have lost their lives trying to perfect some form of under-water transport. An American invented the first practical unit that led to the globe-girdling nuclear submarines of modern times. Designed like fish or aquatic mammals, subs have followed airplane design in many ways. But airplanes required the radical innovation of Chris Whittle's jet engine to evolve into jumbo passenger-carrying flying machines. Submarines are currently on the same big jump track. New nuclear subs can travel up to 180 km per hour.
It takes a big stretch of mind to create the solution. Water is heavier than air. That makes moving rapidly through water challenging. What to do? Create a mobile "tunnel" around your submarine like a huge bubble that removes the water and you can literally fly through air UNDER WATER at more than 180 km/h! Big stretch, right? It is still only a theory, but I'll leave the odds -- after you finish this page from Dr. Tomorrow's Digital Diary -- to you the reader and your local bookie.
SuperCavitation describes the theory that enables under-water vehicles to exceed speeds of more than 180 km/hr. A totally new method of propulsion must be found. This whole underwater trail is reminiscent of the evolution of the airplane when it had to break the sound barrier at around 1,000 km/hr (varies with altitude and temperature). The Whittle jet engine provided the necessary kick.
For 40 years Soviet scientists have been working at increasing vehicular speed under water at the Hydrodynamics Institute in Kiev. Forced to actually. They had been losing the submarine war and been forced to think laterally.
Recently in Bangalore, India (30 percent of all global computer programmers are from India) Rudra Pratap has been working on supercavitation attempting to leapfrog cavitation, a reaction of water that causes damaging shock waves resulting in pitting of the hull. Much like hitting the sound barrier in our atmosphere.
The laws of physics prevent traditional submarines from going much faster unless design can break, go around, over or through the law or: vaporize what ever you are about to hit/enter or break through.
Descriptive Diagrams Go Here:
The goal of these engineers is "supercavitation": to vaporize action of seawater immediately in front of a submarine to create the mobile bubble all engineers know is there. They must cross the water barrier, equivalent to the sound barrier in the sky.
It has taken the Russians until the 1990s to make it work with a new style torpedo, rumored to split the sea at 500 km/hr. The U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is working to make the Russian success the covered wagon of the third millennium. Five years ago they proved the concept with a projectile fired underwater that reached a speed of almost 5,400 km/hr. NUWC is now blowing bubbles at dangerous sea mines to hopefully eliminate these non-ticking time bombs lazily floating around earth's oceans. Shortly they hope to shoot such a projectile from a Cobra helicopter into the water at very high speed. It will slow down as it enters the water but will still go deep enough to hit and enter a mine to cause ignition. Stay tuned.
A recent article in New Scientist says velocity for the desired break through would have to reach 2.5 km/sec.
Imagine a London to New York race with the SuperCavitating U.S. submarine beating the French/British Concord to New York!
Does this sound like another America Cup?
