Shanghai to San Francisco in less than 2 hours — will that soon be possible? Chinese scientists may have found something that will revolutionise travel. It might be possible to travel underwater at very high speed with the supersonic-submarine...
...In theory, a kind of air bubble is generated, which could make these extreme speeds possible. Conventional submarines are mainly slowed down because water creates significantly more drag than air. The principle of supercavitation was developed during the Cold War: an underwater vehicle was surrounded with a bubble to achieve high speeds, however, only a speed of about 370 km/h was reached.
Since the technology is much more developed nowadays, it is theoretically possible to reach speeds of 5,800 km/h. The problem with this is that the submarine must start at a very high speed to be able to ever reach a speed of 5,800 km/h. Furthermore, it will be impossible to steer the vehicle. A special liquid, supposed to form a membrane may offer a solution. This liquid should be splashed on the vehicle as soon as it is in the water and thus reduce water resistance, so that the vehicle can change into a state of supercavitation above 75 km/h.
However, there are further problems to solve before manned vehicles can run at such high speeds. For example, there is no suitable rocket engine that can bridge a distance of about 10,000 kilometres. The rocket engines that were used during the Cold War only managed 11-15 kilometres.
It thus remains to be seen whether travel is revolutionised by these or similar technologies.
Source:golem.de IT news for professionals
