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#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Jack Daniels Date: January 28, 2017, 1:06 am
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Thanks James! Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
#Post#: 34--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Airfixer Date: January 28, 2017, 1:15 am
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Best wishes for your meeting today Jacqui!
#Post#: 35--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Miami Nice Date: January 28, 2017, 1:58 am
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I wanted to ask James (the Administrator) if he plans to keep
this Forum running through the whole of The Fastest Boat
project, or just through the Feasibility Study period which
should end at Easter this year?
#Post#: 36--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: James Date: January 28, 2017, 2:17 am
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Hello there Miami Nice! I anticipate that the Forum will run in
this form until at least Easter this year, by which time the
project website should be under construction. I've been asked to
take charge of that work in due course. The current negotiations
with the Name Sponsor include the parameters of the future
website, and whether it will include a forum facility. As
always, it will be a matter of whether the ongoing costs of
running the Forum will be justified by the benefits it produces
for the team. So let's see how this all develops over the next
ten weeks.
#Post#: 37--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Wildchild Date: January 28, 2017, 4:24 am
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I was looking at previous attempts to achieve high speeds with
unmanned boats, and most of those seemed to be using standard
radio controlled craft which were small enough to be picked up
by one person. From what I've read here and heard on the
grapevine, I'm anticipating that the current UK team are going
to be making something much larger, maybe even approaching the
size of some of the manned vessels from the 1950's and 1960's,
which were around 30' long and weighed several tons. The
momentum of a large boat like this might make it more stable and
easier to control, but it would need a lot more power to
overcome the weight and air resistance caused by an increased
frontal area. The fastest available road cars can reach around
250mph after several miles of run-up, as James May demonstrated
in the Bugatti Veyron on 'Top Gear'. Concorde could take 100
passengers up to twice the speed of sound, but guzzled fuel at a
very high rate. But good roads and high altitudes enable smooth
progress, whereas water surfaces are prone to all kinds of
disturbance, and in this new project I'm betting that the
stability issues will be the most challenging aspect of the
work. With the right people, the right budget, a practical
approach and enough time, the new team is certainly on the right
track
#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Porcupine Date: January 28, 2017, 4:34 am
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I have visions of a very long, slim boat, not only for stability
but also to contain the solid fuel rocket(s) mounted within the
hull. Also, a long hull will help stability by giving a longer
'lever arm' for the interactive airfoils and underwater vanes. A
longer design might also reduce aerodynamic drag: the SR71
'Blackbird', one of the fastest fully operational aircraft ever
at over 3 times the speed of sound, is a good example of 'very
long, very thin and very fast'.
#Post#: 39--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Lucky Luke Date: January 28, 2017, 7:49 am
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Obviously we are getting some very informed posts here. I don't
know very much about how to make a boat travel quickly, but I'm
learning fast! This is a fascinating Forum and I just hope he
team can get the funding to put their design to the ultimate
test in four years' time.
#Post#: 40--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Anne Thrax Date: January 28, 2017, 8:01 am
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Terrific forum! Thank you!
#Post#: 41--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Fast And Furious Date: January 28, 2017, 8:13 am
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I come from a drag racing background, and I'm interested in the
discussion about maintaining stability during a high speed run
on water. When McLaren launched their F1 supercar in the mid
1990's, it was mainly for racing at places like Le Mans, but
about 65 of the cars were built for road use as well. Comedian
Rowan Atkinson ('Mr Bean') bought one and had a couple of very
nasty crashes in it, even though he's a very accomplished racing
driver. The problem was that McLaren had concentrated on high
speed in a straight line, at the expense of stability in
corners. For a decade the F1 was the fastest road-legal car in
the world, at 240 mph. So anything, car or boat, that needs to
break speed records has to have just enough stability to 'stay
alive', but no more. It really is 'living on the edge' and it
will be exciting to watch how the new team can push their
designs to higher and higher velocities without sustaining too
many accidents!
#Post#: 42--------------------------------------------------
Re: Creating The Fastest Boat
By: Nostromo Date: January 28, 2017, 8:40 am
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The analogy with road and race cars is very useful. In 1969
Porsche designed the 917 sports racing car, which had fearsome
power but very little grip on the curves. Porsche didn't want to
add fixed wings to give more downforce (and hence grip) because
that would add to aerodynamic drag and slow the car down on the
straights. So they tried out some movable flaps which were
linked to the suspension and would only come into action on the
corners. It worked fine, and the cars became both fast and
controllable. However, the rules prohibited 'moving aerodynamic
devices' so the flaps had to be removed. But Porsche had proved
the concept, and in more recent years such ideas have been tried
on road cars, including the Koenigsegg supercars, where they are
used both as downforce generators and as airbrakes. The main
difficulty is the control system that has to decide when to move
the devices, and by how much. I see a lot of work for the team
in getting this to function properly, but in principle it
certainly seems possible.
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