Potential supersonic jet boat design from 1998

1998 design study by aeronautical engineer Darrol Stinton

 

FR,

Did you have a question?

 

No, I do not.

 

I do not think they have reached supersonic speeds on a land based vehicle yet. I once met Gary Gabelich who held the land speed record once, he was later killed in another speed attempt on a motor cycle.

I do not even see how it could possibly done on water unless you are flying in ground effects over the water. than it is actually a water launched aircraft, not a boat. How would a few foils in water behave at 700 plus mph? where would you find a glass smooth lake large enough? The foils would disintegrate long before you reach mach one, or you would lose control and the whole ship would be destroyed.

And to what purpose, to say you built the fastest boat? Not much of a boat even if it was possible. Sounds really foolish.

 

Supersonic speed depends on the fluid thru which the supersonic craft will travel. Sonic velocity in air is dependent on temperature, and is around 700 MPH high up in the cold atmosphere, closer to 750 MPH at ordinary atmospheric temperatures.

Water has a sonic velocity too, and its around 2700 MPH, 4000 feet per second. Good luck getting supersonic velocity in water, just not in any realm of reality, except the first few inches of travel for a high velocity rifle bullet fired into water, enters the water at perhaps 4000 ft/sec, and becomes sub-sonic in a couple of inches. That same bullet can go for miles in atmospheric air.

 

I think there are less cruel ways of committing suicide.

 

At 763 mph, the current world land speed record is supersonic.

 

Sounds pretty small-minded and lacking in imagination. You do it not because it is easy, but because it is hard. You do it because it's a project that challenges the imagination.

The vehicle described in the graphics IS a ram-wing that flies in ground effect above the water with a stabilizing skeg and rudder in the water. "The foils would disintegrate long before you reach mach one, or you would lose control and the whole ship would be destroyed." This was also covered in the graphics you didn't bother to read. The skeg and rudder WOULD ablate due to cavitation, but the right alloys would have enough ablation resistance to last for one run.

 

Check out this video for supersonic flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=gWGLAAYdbbc&feature=endscreen

If the plane 28 seconds into the video was dragging a wire he could have set a record.

 

Neat video.

 

Many of the members here are gearheads. Sometimes we do things "just because we can". When we build something, whether practical or not, we test our preliminary ideas by assesing three things; cost, risk, reward.

A potentially supersonic boat/plane could probably be built. I am at a loss to reconcile the first two tests with the latter one. Put them on a scale, one and two on the left and three on the right, and they will not balance.

I reckon that Daiquiris comment was pretty near spot on.

 

Yes, The wiki page shows the current water record at 317mph, which isn't even half way to supersonic and the fatality rate has been 85%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_speed_record

The sketches on the first post are not remotely realistic. The power requirement is off by a mile and the vessel would be much larger. The Thrust SSC needed 50,000 lb of thrust (110,000 Hp) to go supersonic on land. Water will require even more power.

 

Darrol Stinton

Google Darrol Stinton to start, because the idea the designers didn't know how to calculate power requirements is stupid.

Plus Thrust SSC weighed 22,000 POUNDS (ELEVEN TONS).

The design proposed by Stinton doesn't even weigh two tons. That's not even as much as one of the engines in Thrust SSC.

 

The people who do build and run water speed boats and land speed record cars weigh things differently in their calculus.

 

I am aware of that, and I salute you one and all. I reckon that the first men on the moon had enormous balls or a mysterious deathwish. Yes we need people who are willing to take risks. History is full of those kinds of men and even women, Peary, Amundsen, Columbus, Magellan and many more. We need a substantial reason for taking those risks and those reasons need not have anything to do with proving ones manhood or their fifteen minutes of fame..

An uncontrolled testosterone overload is an unfortunate biological reality that gets a lot of really intelligent, creative, and adventurous people too dead to be capable of further creative contribution.