You've seen the real-life underwater fly-by's (filmed on a range in the Brahma's I think) of an early THRESHER class boat
Do you know if this footage is on the internet somewhere? I'd love to see it.
Thresher had PUFFS on her aft planes until a few months before she sank. I don't know how large the fairings were, but they might be identifiable in the footage.
I have circumstantial evidence that
Thresher had a five-bladed screw. It's been reported that
Thresher reached 33 knots (same as the Skipjacks) on sea trials, which is not as crazy as it might sound. The wetted area was about the same as the Skipjacks due to the tiny sails of the later class and of course both classes had the same power. However the top speed the later boats in the class was around 28 knots with the seven-bladed skewback. The Skipjacks also had around a 28 knot top speed when fitted with the J-screws. So it seems pretty clear to me that Thresher had a five-bladed screw, at least on trials. I have also heard anecdotes of 637s doing speed trials with five-bladed screws fitted, but I'm skeptical.
If only we had drydock photos of
Thresher. It seems that the number of drydock photos is proportional to the square of the number of years in service. I would also kill for a drydock photo of
Barb with the 637-esque end-plates on her aft planes.
Jacob
[quote] You've seen the real-life underwater fly-by's (filmed on a range in the Brahma's I think) of an early THRESHER class boat[/quote]
Do you know if this footage is on the internet somewhere? I'd love to see it. [i]Thresher[/i] had PUFFS on her aft planes until a few months before she sank. I don't know how large the fairings were, but they might be identifiable in the footage.
I have circumstantial evidence that [i]Thresher[/i] had a five-bladed screw. It's been reported that [i]Thresher[/i] reached 33 knots (same as the Skipjacks) on sea trials, which is not as crazy as it might sound. The wetted area was about the same as the Skipjacks due to the tiny sails of the later class and of course both classes had the same power. However the top speed the later boats in the class was around 28 knots with the seven-bladed skewback. The Skipjacks also had around a 28 knot top speed when fitted with the J-screws. So it seems pretty clear to me that Thresher had a five-bladed screw, at least on trials. I have also heard anecdotes of 637s doing speed trials with five-bladed screws fitted, but I'm skeptical.
If only we had drydock photos of [i]Thresher[/i]. It seems that the number of drydock photos is proportional to the square of the number of years in service. I would also kill for a drydock photo of [i]Barb[/i] with the 637-esque end-plates on her aft planes.
Jacob