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22:54 SHIP OF THE FUTURE – STEALTH TRIMARAN |
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECTSHIP OF THE FUTURE – STEALTH TRIMARAN Your boat’s exterior should meet your requirements. Some people build real works of art, the acme of perfection. If your objective is like that, so go ahead. From the other hand, you can spend much less efforts and time and get a very decent boat that would meet all requirements and excite general admiration. (George Buehler, Buehler's Backyard Boatbuilding) SHIP OVERVIEW Basic overview. The trimaran is designed on the basis of the Stealth Technology. The hull consists of geometric planes, which enables to produce a high-tech, high-speed, multi-purpose, endurable and unsinkable new-generation boat with improved specifications and new capabilities for long-term high-speed sea voayages. Material. Aluminum and titanium alloys, composites. Multihulled architecture. The boat is capable of
operating in all weather conditions, including heavy storms, and has no
parallel in the world. The boat can be designed with two or more
bearing hulls (catamaran, trimaran, polymaran) with nearly all outlines
and a big flair (over 10 degrees) depending on a required velocity and
purpose: sea blade, gliding, semi-gliding, deep V bow with sponsons,
displacement boat, a variant with underwater wings of various types,
etc. Hull architecture strengths. The ship’s hull is designed without any bends and comprises only specific geometric planes. Such an architecture does not require complex technologies and re-equipment of manufacturing facilities. The structure is rather easy to assemble, decreases significantly cobstruction costs and allows for using templates for full-scale production. The hull structure can be either welded or riveted or combined (alloys, metals). The structure allows for obtaining much better aerodynamic and hydrodynamic performance. The ship’s windage and water resistance are reduced to a minimum and are close to aircraft characteristics, which opens up new prospects and opportunities in shipbuilding. The hull has acute angles on all its sides. This minimizes an impact of the airflow on any side of the hull. It is possible to fix a great quantity of solar panels on the ship’s surface, which allows for using an electric motor without diminishing aerodynamic performance. Flying capabilities. The ship’s variant is a full-featured Stealth ground effect vehicle, an air assault folding wing ship. The boat can move in two modes: as a common high-speed ship and as an aircraft flying at a ten-meter height above the water surface. Either jet or propeller engines can be installed. Application area. The ship can be military- and civil-oriented: Military purpose. A military large-size variant can be equipped with a helicopter pad hidden in the hull (closer to the aft). Almost all weapon can be hidden inside the hull. Each geometric plane can serve as an opening hatch, window or a torpedo/missile tube that enable to produce a stealthy fire. A combat laser can be installed on the ship’s top point with a 360-degree visual field and a good vertical field of fire. There is a variant that can submerge to a shallow depth, however sufficient to covertly approach a hostile target, attack suddenly and make a covert lodgment. There are hatches at the bottom of and between the hulls for a safe disembarkation and embarkation of soldiers during a battle; the hulls protect people from fire on both sides.
PROJECT HISTORY A catamaran or trimaran architecture is not used very often in shipbuilding due to a "tradition” or for other reason. One likely needs to look at the world in another way, muster up the nerve and cut off excess notions and everything that prevent one from freeing the mind and seeing something others cannot see, in order to create something new and unusual. Sometimes, people just have a traditional orthodoxal knowledge and limited experience. But when catamarans and trimarans were built, they used to prove their superiority over single-hulled ships. We did not initially plan to create a Stealth ship. We just wanted to create a new ship concept taking into account cost effectiveness and ease of construction. But the principal condition was the maximal quality. The first value we proceeded to study was the hull strength. The strength mainly depends upon the material a ship would be build from. Metals are heavy, exposed to corrosion and require constant care; plastics are not very reliable and not long-life, especially when operating in a climate with big temperature shifts (winter, summer); wood is troublesome to deal with, it eventually soaks up, becomes heavy and loses its properties; composite materials may seem fit, but there are some constructional and operational subtlties. We fixed upon aluminum and titanium alloys by the price-quality ratio. The alloys are sufficiently strong, light and can boast an extended service life. But these alloys should be bended for the ship construction, which would not be so easy. There emerged an idea of designing a ship, the hull of which would not have bended planes but that would feature excellent aerodynamic and hydrodynamic characteristics, spacious cabins, improved comfort, velocity and reliability. An impossible task, is it? It depends… A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. How can we use that? We resorted to the perspective geometry; just marked several points in space and connected them. Any ship is traditionally built from the bottom up or from the top down (from a hull bottom to topsides or vice versa). We applied the other method – from the ship’s center – inside out. A cube is the most stable geometric figure. We put it as a basis, as the ship’s center. But does a cube have any aero- and hydrodynamic properties? No, it doesn’t. So, we turned it as a rhombus, calculated and marked definite points in space, prolonged and connected absolutely straight lines in various directions. We got a slightly angular structure that comprised elongated triangles. Then, the structure was somewhat placed in a three- and four-dimension graphical projection. The projection was far from the existing ship. We had a lot of ideas and calculations, without going into particulars. Our work sometimes continued when we were sleeping, but the desired result was still far. We decided to construct the first model. It became a basis for further calculations and tests. Later, a basic outline of the ship commenced to emerge, a bit indistinct, but its main features were clearly visible. We proceeded to draw. Now, we got it better and more clearly. But there was still another major problem – we lacked clear plane projections as it was impossible to make any calculations with them. It was not clear at what angles the planes would be placed, as a type of plane – triangle, trapezoid or parallelogram – depends upon sizes, angle degrees and distances. All figures should be flat and without bends, but be characterized with good aero- hydrodynamic properties. The construction of the second and third scaled models enabled us to solve most problems. The principal objective was reached – the base hull was calculated and created. Studies of Ufimtsev’s work "The Method of Fringe Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction” wherein the scientist described the theory of radio waves reflection from flat surfaces was the last stage that enabled us to conduct fundamental calculations related to the ship’s hull and implement the Stealth technology. According to the Soviet scientist, machines designed from flat panels connected with each other at specific angles are able to efficiently reflect radar waves that resulted in a perfect radio camouflage. Ufimtsev’s research were applied in the Soviet Union for decreasing the dispersion in intercontinental ballistic missiles. Because of the insufficient computer capacities in the USSR and a failure to carry out high-accuracy calculations, those ideas were not applied in practice. Besides, Ufimtsev specified in his works that and ambition for designing an aircraft from flat panels might result in the deterioration of its aerodynamic characteristics and considerably worsen its controllability and inflight stability. As a result, Ufimtsev’s works were shelved for better times. After a refusal of the Soviet government to implement his ideas, Ufimtsev, greatly offended, immigrated to the United States and was immediately involved in the development of the Stealth technology program. By that time, the US had considerable success in the Stealth technology development. In 70s, the USA disposed of rather powerful computers allowing for commencing operations in designing a an invisible aircraft. But computer performance was not sufficient for calculating all the aircraft’s surfaces. Then, experts decided to divide the surface into triangles and compute them separately in accordance with the Ufimtsev’s method. The result was a well-known "triangular” F-117 Nighthawk. We once again examined the ship, conducted required computations and measurements, and came to a conclusion that the ship’s hull even exceeds requirements to plane location angles. E.g., A required degree to become invisible to radars is 35 degrees max; a degree in our ship is not more than 32?. The next stage was an attempt to use a ground effect that emerges when the trimaran was moving. If the ground air cushion is capable of lift a ship under the water surface, why not to make the whole ship fly? Our calculations showed it was possible. But where to get wings? From the hull’s surface. We just applied a natural bird flight principle – if a bird folds its wings on the body, then our ship can also use that mechanism. We reduced the ship’s weight by decreasing the middle hull, provided better aerodynamic properties and moved the engines to side hulls. All of these enabled the ship to take off and fly. The ship lacked a capability to submerge for a full versatility. We covered the aft with planes and made a leak-proof hull. The maximum depth for the structure is 18-20 meters, but this is sufficient for the ship to disappear from the water surface and begin to move under water. Патентный приоритет - 2006 г. Priority of patent - 2006 year.
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