According to Van Tillburg, it looks more like a Cold War submarine than a WW2 ship, built for high speed underwater travel. The I-401 was its sister vessel. That one was located in 2005, and it was capable of carrying 144 people through 59,545km, it was three times the size of modern submarines. Japan wanted to use these ships to launch aerial attacks in the continental United States. To do this, it used three Aichi light bombers, each capable of carrying an 800kg bomb. When their mission was complete, the bombers returned to the submarine, landing on the water using floats.

The Japanese also had another dirty trick in their pockets: use the submarines to deploy rats infected with the plague and insects loaded with cholera, dengue and typhus. Fortunately, they never were able to put that in practice before the Americans delivered to them a fat tin-can full of atoms.

These submarines were so advanced that, after being captured and inspected by the United States, they were sunk so the Soviets couldn’t inspect them. The Japanese were the pioneers in developing advanced aerial attack technology for submarines. The sea-to-air cruise missile was developed later, during the Cold War period. Nowadays, the US Navy is working on submarine-launched drones which can take off from underwater. [National Geographic via Daily Mail]

[Wired]

Meanwhile, I just created charcoal while trying to make a bagel.

The rig cost Tao 30,000 yuan (AU$5132) and two years to build, and includes a periscope and depth control tank. No mention of a sonar system, but knowing the Chinese farmers these days that DIY achievement has to be just a matter of time. [China Daily via Gizmo Watch via DVICE]

Akulas—the NATO designation for the Project 971 Shchuka-B Soviet Submarine—are some of the deadliest sea weapons in existence. Not deadly to people on land, as the Russian Typhoons are—the largest submarines ever built, equipped with 20 RSM-52 nuclear ballistic missiles—but to other submarines and ships. Equipped with four 533mm internal torpedo tubes plus six external 533mm, and an extra four 650mm tubes, the Akulas were designed to hunt other vessels, subaquatic or on the surface. And they, according to US intelligence reports, they can do that mighty well. They are the counterpart to the US Los Angeles-class SSN 751 nuclear subs.

These things can launch up to forty torpedoes, mines, and missiles—the later using a separate tube for surface launch. It’s equipped with a sophisticated sound reduction system, which was perfected in the 80s with the help of Toshiba, who sold them precision milling systems for that task. At least, according to the US Navy.

Seriously, why do this now? Couldn’t the Russians park the subs at home, and have a picnic to enjoy the summer? [NYT and Wikipedia]

To achieve the amazing speeds, the sub utilises a hydrodynamic effect known as supercavitation. When the Underwater Express achieves enough speed, a gas bubble envelops the vessel and reduces drag allowing it to achieve speeds not otherwise possible—not unlike the USS Enterprise’s warp field. The submarine’s designer, Electric Boat, is working on a one-quarter scale model for sea trials off the coast of Rhode Island. If the trials are successful, Electric Boat will begin production on a full scale 30m submarine. Seals had better watch out, I doubt the Underwater Express will feel remorse as it rams into adorable marine life at 100 knots. Unlike the regular express where all you see is bums peeing on the wall, here you get to see sharks explode. [Popular Science]

John Markoff got a ride recently, and reported the craft as being interesting, even in the plankton fog of Monterey Bay, CA.

Each time the 21-foot long electric-powered submarine plunged, my loosely buckled five-point harness left me sliding out of my seat. Each time we started to ascend, I was pushed back into the seat by the acceleration…Unlike a conventional submarine, which uses ballast to plunge into the ocean depths, the Super Falcon “flies” through water. It is slightly buoyant, and it is the speed of its propeller that pushes it downward in the mirror image of the aerodynamic lift of a conventional winged aircraft.It can operate at depths up to 400 feet, has a top speed of six knots and can fly for five hours on a single battery charge.

Deep Flight is helmed by Graham Hawkes, a pioneer in deep sea exploration vehicles. Among other craft, Hawkes built the Deep Rover sub which was used to film Aliens of the Deep by James Cameron in 3D IMAX, the Mantis, which was filmed in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only and the Deep Flight Challenger, a winged sub built capable of reaching 37,000 feet of depth meant for Steve Fossett to break the deep diving record in.

If you’re interested, John Markoff’s article has a video embedded in it of the dive and a tale of the first ocean dive in the Falcon with Perkins, where they chased Hammerheads. Below, I’ve included a video of the Maltese Falcon coming under the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as a video of him testing his prototype Super Falcon.

[Deep Flight, NYTimes, photo by Leslie Terzian Markoff and Yachtpals]

They claim this is the first time anybody has video Skyped from a submarine to anyone, let alone Her Oprahness. If you get past the commander’s canned speech at the beginning, and the obvious advertorial nature of the promo, you actually get a cool glimpse of life aboard a submarine, with 146 dudes, no ladies and just six toilets. They connect to the internet via their periscope antenna, which sticks up above the water and grabs some network (presumably satellite, but that close to Hawaii, it could be cellular). It’s crazy stuff, so have a listen. [Oprah]

The Deep Flight Super Falcon is a flying submarine that can’t really fly. Not that it matters for anyone without $US1.3 million to spare, but the “fly” part refers to the way it dives.

The key here is that the Deep Flight Super Falcon doesn’t have ballast tanks—tanks which can be filled with water or pressurised air to increase or decrease the submarine’s weight—making it to submerge or emerge. The two-seat Super Falcon dives down to 1,500 feet using speed and it’s aerodynamic design, according to designer Graham Hawkes:

We just had to tear up everything we knew about submersibles and start again on winged subs — underwater flying machines

The project started as custom submarine for venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who wanted a sub for his Maltese Falcon—better known as Darth Vader’s mega-yacht. After that, Hawkes decided to make the design available to other dirty-rich people for $US1.3 million each or, in it’s open cockpit version, $US350,000. [Deep Flight via Yatch Pals via CNN]

The catch is, the Navy is insisting upon donating it in tandem with a giant, ugly, rust-laden submsersible barge called the Hughes Mining Barge. The vessel was actually used as a floating dock for the Sea Shadow, protecting it from the prying eyes of Soviet spy satellites.

The WSJ has a great story on Frank Lennon, a Naval museum operator in Providence, RI whose sole attraction—a retired old Soviet sub—was sunk by a tidal wave. While it has recently been exhumed from the deep, Frank has his eye on the Sea Shadow as his next big crowd-getter. Now he just has to figure out what to do with ths shitty old barge it comes with.

Anyone want to take on old Frank for the prize? The Navy is waiting for your calls. [WSJ]

A Royal Navy source told the Times:

It is remarkably difficult to detect a modern submarine with sonar and we work very hard with our own submarines, as do our allies, in making them as quiet as possible so they are not detectable.

And he’s serious about that—even after realising they’d hit something, the French crew couldn’t tell what it was. They wrote the object off as a shipping container, only to find out that they had actually collided with another submarine upon docking three days later, after the government had deduced the collision from routine information exchanges with the British.

The problem was that both submarines use passive sonar to map out their surroundings, which doesn’t give away their location with the ‘pings’ of active sonar, and is somewhat less sensitive. Without these ‘pings’, it was nearly impossible for either sub’s passive sonar to detect the other’s, leading to the collision and subsequent confusion.

In reality, the whole thing was a bit more subdued than initial reports (or our imaginations) led us to believe. The subs, which were travelling very slowly, just sort of bonked into on another, and the only critical damage to either vessel was to the French sub’s sonar system. [Times Online]