[Fineus]

I'm not sure if anyone else has heard about this - but it seems big.

Supercavitation, enabling movement through water and speeds of well over 300mph (previously only around 110mph was possible due to friction). This friction is removed by unique designs, air bubbles are formed around the nose of the craft and travel down to surround the entire craft - meaning that it is travels not through water, but through air! Not convinced?

http://www.deepangel.com/

Yes, it's a game.  But it's based on real technology (apparently). Suffice to say, take a look and decide for yourself. And of course there's the obligatory eye candy...



Enjoy!

[Setekh]

Well, I'm not too cluey about the technology, but I like the picture a lot.

[icespeed]

this is majorly COOL!!
there was a minute when i had no idea what supercavitation was but i remembered my chemistry syllabus: cavitation is something to do with friction on propellors or something in ships, corrosion due to friction, something like that...

so someone tell me how the design actually works, this is interesting.

[Turnsky]

Hmm... interesting concept... particularly in the civil transport/Defence industries respectively..

[Fineus]

For sure! I only know a bit about it myself but it seems the Russians already have a working model on a torpedo that can reach upwards of 300mph in water. The game was in development a bit before the technology was announced. I can't offer more information I'm afraid but I'm sure Google will yeild something useful. I just don't have time to look right now.

[Unknown Target]

Heard about this awhile ago, nothing new seems to be happening, unfortunately (with the game + movie).

[Nico]

bah, I prefer MHD ( I say that just to sound like a geek, I have no idea wheter MHD is better or not )

oh, and for tyhe russiand torpedo, search for squall torpedo

[Styxx]

There are rumors that the russian sub that sunk a couple of years ago and lost all hands was carrying prototypes of the supercavitating torpedo, that being the reason why the Russians were so reluctant to accept international help. Can't be sure if that's true, though.

[Nico]

I doubt it... I'm pretty sure every country that can afford it already has prototypes of those kind of things.

[mikhael]

Supercavitation is nifty. It just wreaks absolute havok with marine life. If you search Slashdot.org, there's a couple of stories about supercav torps and subs.

That said, Deep Angel is awesome. I was unaware the creator had decided to go the game route. Last time I looked he was still just doing world building and 3d movies. Its an excellent concept and his designs rock beyond belief.

[Nico]

yeah, I agree, the design is pretty jawdropping
but for now, the screenshots aren't quite up to the precalculated pics

[Deepblue]

I believe I was the first one to post the Viper S-16 from Deepangel. However I think the project is dead. Try looking up information on the game. Their are 2 screenshots and nothing else.
EDIT: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,18031.0.html Middle bottom of the page.

[Nico]

there's 12 screenshots, actually ( "game" submenu, screenshots section of the main site )

[Deepblue]

Google search only found 2

[IceFire]

Interesting...yeah the torpedoes are supposed to have an air bubble around them and they use rocket motors like in many missiles to propell the torpedo.   faster than a conventional torpedo and thus being quite a bit more deadly.

[Flaser]

This is very old news.
Archimedean dynasty (released in 1996  alreadz spoke of it), actually cavitation researches are underwaz for more then a decade.

BTW the submarine was the Kursk- shame on you for forgetting.

Finally cavitation is a known phenomenon. It's workings are nothing special - in a high velocity medium pressire drops - this is the Bernouli effect, the very thing that lifts planes up from the ground.
However the reason why it's special in water is that water evaporates at smaller pressures - so gas bubble forms over the object.
This was a major problem for shipbuilders and engineers designing boilers and hydraulic machinery.

To make a boat faster all you'd have to do is spin the fan faster -but at high speed cavitation will take place and friction would essentially cease compared ot water. So you would end up with no additional thrust - that why they use bigger or more fans instead of spinning one at high speed.

This is also the reason why high speed boats don't use a rudder but some other typer of steering.

Inside a machine the problem resides in the fact, that when the bubble reaches a turn in a pipe it would stop - the warter following it would not! So it will haemmer the pipe with extreme force.

[Unknown Target]

The subs name was the Kursk, and I heard about that rumor, but in a Tom Clancy book

[Rictor]

Yup, supercav and Deep Angel both kick large amounts of ass. I first found out about Deep Angel maybe 3 years or so ago, read all the episodes and it was very cool. At first, I was skeptical if you could really be fully immeresed just by reading the scripts, but it was done very well.

However, it all went awry when the creators (Kotwicki Bros.) decided to change the storyline and start over. In the previous story arc (which I like much more than the current one) they had about 8 (or so) episodes done, which made for some very good reading. The story had already advanced pretty far and the characters were nicely developed etc. Now with the new story arc, I don't kow if they even have a single episode done (they didn't last time I checked) and the storyline seems to be inferior to the previous one.

That said, I'm asking anyone out there who might have the original scripts (and/or art) to PLEASE email me or PM me about it. The Deep Angel I know was freaking awesome, but it apprears to be gone, so I'm just trying to gather the old scripts for safe keeping or something. If you can't tell already, I pretty much hate the new Deep Angel.

[Setekh]

The pictures on that site of the guy character look funny, because they didn't change his facial expression before rendering each new one.

What, you expected me to make some sort of scientific contribution to this conversation?

[Liberator]