10-01-2010, 10:31 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Trophy These happened to include the progenitor of the Spitfire. so at least for short-range fighters you're not looking at that much performance loss. Many designs primarily intended for land use had floats that could be added, including the DC-3. Also, just before and mostly into WWII the largest airplanes in the world were seaplanes. In terms of pre-WWII aircraft you're losing very little by going to float-planes and boat-hulled seaplanes.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
10-01-2010, 11:45 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
Quote:
Last edited by LostPassWord; 10-01-2010 at 11:58 AM. |
|
10-01-2010, 07:27 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Houston
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
__________________
A generous and sadistic GM, Brandon Cope GURPS 3e stuff: http://copeab.tripod.com |
10-01-2010, 09:01 PM | #34 |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
Thing is, Diesel-Electrics can't stay driving that long on batteries. 8-12 hours propulsion, IIRC. A couple days at loiter. And typical submerged speeds of 5-10kts. (roughly 7-14kph)... I was talking snorkel sizes to avoid weather while on diesel.
|
10-01-2010, 09:08 PM | #35 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
|
10-01-2010, 10:57 PM | #36 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
I think the 1954 movie suggested atomic power for the Nautilus, unless I'm confusing it with USS Nautilus SSN-571, first atomic-powered submarine. Verne's original was powered by the scientific magic of the day -- electricity, before the power of the atom became a good excuse for anything in Golden Age SF.
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
10-02-2010, 06:48 AM | #37 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
Quote:
However, in light of the excerpts provided (and thank you very much for those) it seems likely that Verne intended a sort of chemical process. In Gurps Steampunk Bill Stoddard called this system (whatever it was) "Advanced Primary Batteries" and gave it stats equal to advanced TL8 batteries from Ve2. I don't really think this was high enough to support the level of performance Verne implied. The Nautlius would have had to refuel no less than every 3 days even while loitering. If I had t try a more detailed technobabbling I might make motions towards an anachronistic fuel cell with the "burned" coal being actually a process we'd call "coal gasification" and the sodium......well, if the sodium has to do something it can be part of some magical scheme for extracting oxygen from seawater. Of course, if you're "disintegrating" the seawater that would imply breaking the H2O down to get you O2 and leaves you wondering what you're doing with the hydrogen. O2 and hydrogen would be ideal for a fuel cell and all you have to do is violate conservation of energy. Verne apparently wasn't much of a chemist, probably not even for his time. Atomic power is a technobabble upgrade and would work much better. To return to the OP's need it would also work better for his submarine freighter scheme than any sort of diesel-snorkel arrangement. Snorkels are a late WWII development and thus only 10 years before working nuclear power so you're not saving that much in SoD.
__________________
Fred Brackin |
|
10-02-2010, 07:08 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
I'd agree: given our modern perspective, a WW2-era atomic pile is more convincing for game purposes than any sort of battery. Especially since we're talking about large cargo submarines, it doesn't even have to be particularly ahead of its time. (SSN-571 was authorized in 1951, launched in 1954, so there's only a few years of additional post-war design time.)
If you want to combine the Verne style with fission, then I see that there's 3.3 mg of uranium per cubic meter of seawater. Perhaps these guys are rediscovering his technology. But it seems to me that somewhere on this planet of coral atolls, we'll need some mines for heavy metals, and that place will be politically and economically important. Unless we want to put in a species of metal-concentrating coral. (No wonder it grows in big rings; the species that grew in dense groups all blew themselves up...) |
10-02-2010, 08:25 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
New Scientist recently had an article about modern efforts to make flying submarines, it gives a good overview of the problems involved and approaches to them.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-that-fly.html It should give a few ideas you could include.
__________________
Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
10-02-2010, 09:28 AM | #40 |
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
|
Re: Seaplanes & Submarines
Were not the novel, but the 1954 movie. One of several changes it made.
|
Tags |
cliffhager, pulp, seaplane, submarine |
|
|