Monday, April 23, 2012
GRAHAM HAWKES AND UNDERWATER FLIGHT post by Viquan Harold
Hey bloggers! Have any of you guys heard
of Graham Hawkes? Well, his subs are currently the holder of the deepest
recorded dive of 36,000 feet. His submarines are actually like airplanes that
can go underwater. The interesting thing about this is the MATERIAL! Their
underwater vehicles actually are positively buoyant and they use propellers to
dive. The buoyant forces want to push it back to the surface. If they would
turn their propels off, they would float back up to the surface unlike
traditional submarines that are immensely heavier than water. The Deep Flight
Challenger was one of there most interesting subs because it was designed to go
down the deepest trench in the world, the Mariana, and engineering the material
for that was so key because of the immense pressure. Just think about 60,000
pounds of pressure pushing down on you; you would be flat as pancakes or even
thinner. The actual hull was made out of a custom-designed carbon fiber and it
is said that the pilot would not be subjected to any pressure difference when
diving. Its interesting to wonder the process of designing the material and how
they came up with the material to be used. If you want to check out more about
Graham Hawkes and the Deep Flight Challenger go to www.deepflight.com. It is pretty cool
website and it shows some of the different underwater vehicles his has built.
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That is amazing how it can withstand such pressure. It would be so awesome to go that deep under the water. It definitely takes some guts to try something like that out for the first time.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I would also be very interested to see how the materials for the hull of the sub are made. To be able to withstand such immense pressure, is it just a very strong material or is the material made to be at a regular temperature at that depth? If the material is made the latter way, then how does the material react when at atmospheric pressure? That is why I'm quite interested in seeing how the design process of this material goes.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteYes it is very interesting how it can withstand that much pressure. From watching the video on it, I think the capsule glass is made out of plexiglass and the actual haul is made out of some type of ceramic and mixed with some other materials. I feel like they invented a new material somewhere through the process.
- Virquan Harold