Following his adventures flying a hot air balloon in a giant underground cavern Antoine Delafarge conceived the idea of using a man powered submarine to cross the channel between Britain and France. Due to the depth requirement of up to 120metres and the long duration of the mission, only a dry submersible could be considered. http://www.projetpoissonpilote.com/en/ His initial idea in 2009 was to be a one man vehicle but between then and mid 2013 the concept had changed to a much larger 2 man vehicle. By then Antoine had in place the funding he required so was able to invite me to commence the full design based on his new and quite original concept. Emile van Essen http://www.airesearch.nl/ was given the task of building the pressure hull and making the acrylic hatch.
The voyage is planned for the summer of 2015 and will take around 3 days. The route from Plymouth to St Marlo at 140 miles is not the shortest but is chosen as a transept of greatest interest. The average available power is just 150 W so we have to make every one of these count. The speed will vary between 2 and 2.5 kn and careful planning is required due to the tidal current. When to flow is against the intrepid duo, they will anchor themselves to the sea bed till it abates.
The major part of the stores taken aboard is 40m3 of compressed oxygen, 250kg of carbon dioxide absorbent, 200 litres of fresh water plus various forms of carbohydrate. Some of the sponsors are very interested in the results of this physiological experiment in a sealed environment. It is such a physical and psychological challenge the sponsor realises these study opportunities do not come along very often.
The hull is a convention ring stiffened cylinder with a big margin of safety. There is a single hatch at the front end with a 180° acrylic hemispherical viewport thermo formed by Emile in his special oven/press from 35mm plate. The complete pressure boundary will be pressure tested in a chamber to 200m.
The outer envelope is a tight fitting GRP fairing made by Steel-fish to reduce the resistance as far as is possible. A swivelling tail/prop unit is planned for directional control and a combination of bow planes and trim weight for altitude control.
A limited amount of electrical power will be available for the CO2 scrubber fan, navigation, comms and to take a series of LED strobed stitched images of the sea bed to record the track.
Flying underground. http://onavolesouslaterre.free.fr/index.php?action=home The video is well worth watching, the last 5 minutes spellbinding.
The voyage is planned for the summer of 2015 and will take around 3 days. The route from Plymouth to St Marlo at 140 miles is not the shortest but is chosen as a transept of greatest interest. The average available power is just 150 W so we have to make every one of these count. The speed will vary between 2 and 2.5 kn and careful planning is required due to the tidal current. When to flow is against the intrepid duo, they will anchor themselves to the sea bed till it abates.
The major part of the stores taken aboard is 40m3 of compressed oxygen, 250kg of carbon dioxide absorbent, 200 litres of fresh water plus various forms of carbohydrate. Some of the sponsors are very interested in the results of this physiological experiment in a sealed environment. It is such a physical and psychological challenge the sponsor realises these study opportunities do not come along very often.
The hull is a convention ring stiffened cylinder with a big margin of safety. There is a single hatch at the front end with a 180° acrylic hemispherical viewport thermo formed by Emile in his special oven/press from 35mm plate. The complete pressure boundary will be pressure tested in a chamber to 200m.
The outer envelope is a tight fitting GRP fairing made by Steel-fish to reduce the resistance as far as is possible. A swivelling tail/prop unit is planned for directional control and a combination of bow planes and trim weight for altitude control.
A limited amount of electrical power will be available for the CO2 scrubber fan, navigation, comms and to take a series of LED strobed stitched images of the sea bed to record the track.
Flying underground. http://onavolesouslaterre.free.fr/index.php?action=home The video is well worth watching, the last 5 minutes spellbinding.