Technology and Operations  
This forum is for discussing technological & operational matters pertaining to U-boats. 
Go to: Forum List•Message List•New Topic•Search•Log In•Print View
Increasing speed with air bubbles
Posted by: kurt ()
Date: January 17, 2001 10:55PM

Dick O\'Kane, in \'Clear the Bridge\' says that when he was exec to Mush Morton on the USS Wahoo, Mush tried using the ballast tank blowers when running at full speed: the blowers blew air bubbles out of the ballast tank flood valves. These air bubbles would lower boundary layer resistance just a tad. O\'Kane said they could get an extra 1/2 knot or so of speed that way.

They apparently tried it during practice, but it is never mentioned as being used in combat, either by Morton or anyone else.

A bit of trivia.

Has anyone ever heard of anyone else on the German side trying this trick?

Options: Reply•Quote


Subject Written By Posted
Performance/range Richard Carr 01/16/2001 01:40PM
By calculation SuperKraut 01/16/2001 09:42PM
RE: By calculation Rainer Bruns 01/16/2001 10:21PM
RE: By calculation Jerry Pope 01/17/2001 05:49PM
RE: By calculation Rainer Bruns 01/17/2001 06:04PM
Increasing speed with air bubbles kurt 01/17/2001 10:55PM
RE: Increasing speed with air bubbles Tom Iwanski 01/19/2001 03:13AM
RE: Increasing speed with air bubbles Don Baker 01/20/2001 04:17AM
RE: Increasing speed with air bubbles kurt 01/22/2001 05:55PM
RE: Performance/range Richard Carr 01/19/2001 03:52PM


Go to: Forum List•Message List•Search•Log In
Your Name: 
Your Email: 
Subject: 
Spam prevention:
Please, enter the code that you see below in the input field. This is for blocking bots that try to post this form automatically.
 ********         **  ********    ******   ******** 
 **     **        **  **     **  **    **  **       
 **     **        **  **     **  **        **       
 **     **        **  ********   **        ******   
 **     **  **    **  **         **        **       
 **     **  **    **  **         **    **  **       
 ********    ******   **          ******   ********