Wow! Could you imagine an American building such a thing? Maybe China deserves to be next world power.
Wow! Could you imagine an American building such a thing? Maybe China deserves to be next world power.
"Metal barrels are possibly the best material for me because of their low cost,"
Possibly.
.
I could imagine it when I was a boy and a young man. Might be a little hard now to imagine, not because we don’t have Americans with ingenuity but because the government would stop him somehow or tax him to the point he couldn’t afford to build it.
Yes.
I wonder what those little Japanese mini-subs looked like — the ones they used at Pearl Harbor?
From the photo of this Chinese Death-Trap, I’m guessing that it would take water as ballast up front (to offset the weight of the motor), with the pilot standing amidships and the motor and fuel abaft...
...and I’ll go out on a limb and speculate it is a small diesel motor, not petrol and not electric. There will be two bulkheads, one to separate the pilot from the ballast, and one to separate the pilot from the motor. And compressed air to drive out the ballast: not a pump.
An electric motor would almost make sense to drive this contraption, save for the number and amperage of the (truck?) batteries necessary (and thus the cost), plus it would have to be a fairly beefy electric motor to push all that. This makes me wonder how he supplies air to his motor and vents the exhaust...
Maybe it’s an electric motor after all? But it’s 1.6 tonnes so I’m still guessing a diesel motor plus fuel.
Of course, all that is a SWAG. It would be fascinating to see his drawings, tho’.
I wouldn’t get into that contraption unless I was in scuba gear. (Maybe he is? — that would simplify matters alot).
Looks more like a torpedo than a submarine.
That submersible looks to be partially crushed already. Almost any boat except rafts are submersible.
Reminds me of the Japanese WWII suicide torpedo, the kaiten.
I am feeling claustrophobic just looking at that thing...
Hopefully, you are being sarcastic. That is a picture of doing something on the cheap, which is what the Chinese are good at. How about a sub that can even go down 60-70 feet without popping a leak? He’ll get it right on the 6th or 7th try, maybe - if he survives.
Where I live, by Long Island Sound, there are a number of submarine hobbyists who build their own one man subs that are far superior in construction to that. Norwalk and, I think, Mystic, maritime centers have a couple on display.
There was also an article a few years ago about some guy near New York City who got into all kinds of trouble when he tried to test his replica of the Bushnell sub from the revolutionary war. Harbor police thought he was a terrorist.
One more thing: if it doesn’t prove seaworthy, that thing would make one heck of a smoker for Carolina-style pork.
Uh, well, yes. As a simple search would have revealed even unto you. For example, Here are a few of the many hundreds of possible links to home-made submarine projects.
Yes, I can... but we'd do it with a bit more style:
That's not just a miniature prop from a movie set - it actually submerges. There are a dozen or so *documented* privately-built minisubs. Google "manned scale submersible".
ping
I will now change to envy ping.
He has a vision and carries it out, and gets trashed on FR, amazing.
All for wont of advanced education.
Just think of all the inventions that would never be, if education stood in the way.
If he dies when he takes it out for first voyage at least he did more than I have ever done.
“Wow! Could you imagine an American building such a thing? Maybe China deserves to be next world power.”
No, the problem is the other countries build them to GET to America! Actually, during the Revolution (1812, Civil war?...I need to check) the US militia built a sub. And it worked, for a little while...
This was just the other day.....
Mexico faces new drug challenge: mini-submarines
Colombian suppliers have increasingly used small, semi-submersibles to try to smuggle drugs north toward their eventual markets, mainly in the U.S.
Interesting article and photos.
July 18, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sub18-2008jul18,0,7517274.story
I like this guy.