General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Why not a sub simulator?
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: August 02, 2001 11:30AM
<HTML>There are many organizations that keep restored, flyable versions of WWII aircraft from all nations - the US\'s Confederate Air Force is probably the largest and best known.
But they face many difficult problems. Spare parts are hard or impossible to find, and often must be reversed engineered and be custom made. Drawings and documentation on maintenance procedures etc are hard to come by, especially for the foreign war birds. And, as the aircraft get bigger, the cost of keeping them going goes up fast. There are many P-51\'s flying, a bunch of B-17\'s, and only one B-29 in flyable condition.
Keeping a naval vessel, which is larger, more expensive and reqires a larger crew, is probably beyond the capabilities of a civilian group. A number of US WWII naval vessels (including a few subs) are still in good condition. But there is a big difference between good condition for static display, and ready for sea with all (non-weapon) system on line. I just went to see the USS Sulivans, a WWII DE, a few weeks ago - it is in good shape for display, but a long way from seaworthy. The US sub USS Pompanito is probably the closest thing to a seaworthy WWII sub today, since two of its diesels still work - it was used in a comedy film a few years ago, and actually put out into the water for the filming. Don\'t think it dived, though.
Any U-boat that is dredged off the ocean floor after 60 years will be absolutely beyond any hope of being made seaworthy again. It would be little more than corroded bits of junk. You would be much better off starting from scratch.
If you started from scratch, you would end up substituting modern parts for the vintage ones. The originals are just plain gone - no plans, manufacturing details, drawings, etc. At it would cost a tremendous amount.
That is why for movies, film companies use mockups and special effects - it is much cheaper.
Perhaps more achievable than an actual working sub would be to make an accurate mock-up and simulator of a U-boat, complete with \'crew\' actors, to demonstrate and explain U-boat operations in a museum. An enclosed, full motion based smiulator could give an accurate \'feel\' of a U-boat for the curious or serious buff alike.</HTML>
But they face many difficult problems. Spare parts are hard or impossible to find, and often must be reversed engineered and be custom made. Drawings and documentation on maintenance procedures etc are hard to come by, especially for the foreign war birds. And, as the aircraft get bigger, the cost of keeping them going goes up fast. There are many P-51\'s flying, a bunch of B-17\'s, and only one B-29 in flyable condition.
Keeping a naval vessel, which is larger, more expensive and reqires a larger crew, is probably beyond the capabilities of a civilian group. A number of US WWII naval vessels (including a few subs) are still in good condition. But there is a big difference between good condition for static display, and ready for sea with all (non-weapon) system on line. I just went to see the USS Sulivans, a WWII DE, a few weeks ago - it is in good shape for display, but a long way from seaworthy. The US sub USS Pompanito is probably the closest thing to a seaworthy WWII sub today, since two of its diesels still work - it was used in a comedy film a few years ago, and actually put out into the water for the filming. Don\'t think it dived, though.
Any U-boat that is dredged off the ocean floor after 60 years will be absolutely beyond any hope of being made seaworthy again. It would be little more than corroded bits of junk. You would be much better off starting from scratch.
If you started from scratch, you would end up substituting modern parts for the vintage ones. The originals are just plain gone - no plans, manufacturing details, drawings, etc. At it would cost a tremendous amount.
That is why for movies, film companies use mockups and special effects - it is much cheaper.
Perhaps more achievable than an actual working sub would be to make an accurate mock-up and simulator of a U-boat, complete with \'crew\' actors, to demonstrate and explain U-boat operations in a museum. An enclosed, full motion based smiulator could give an accurate \'feel\' of a U-boat for the curious or serious buff alike.</HTML>
