Don't you believe it, rum boy. Perry planes worked nicely at under ONE knot!!! You have to bully them some, but
they absolutely do work. Mind you, they are deep chord winglets with side plates. I think the dive planes had four or five separate pieces to weld up, plus the shaft and hyd piston lever arrangement, plus a chunk of magnesium bedded to bare aluminum for electrolysis protection. And the rudder is three feet high, boys and girls.
Mind you, that's to steer an 8 ton sub with a main propulsion package that weighed 900 fricking pounds. That's 900 pounds deadweight, folks--motor, reduction gear, shaft seal, couplings and the prop itself (which weighs 175 pounds all by itself!). Most of us don't have the spare payload, even if we had the spare money. For all that, however, you get 800 plus pounds of thrust (bollard pull). It was, and is, a kick ass drive system.
Back to the live rudder arrangement discussion--keep in mind that motor steering means that the motor has to be providing thrust in order to provide steering. With rudders and planes, the movement of water over the control surfaces keeps the boat moving the way you want it to (for the most part) even after you've turned the thruster off--a handy option. Of course, it's a big penalty, all those control surfaces and their attendant hydraulics and control gear, PLUS the big drive in back, PLUS three or four maneuvering thrusters, but I'm here to tell you, a Perry sub will turn every way but inside out, and=2 0do so with authority. That was a big part of their charm.
Vance
-----Original Message-----< br>
From: Jay K. Jeffries <
bottomgun@mindspring.com>
To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 5:52 am
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] planes control surfaces