DARPA Wants Submarines that can Fly

Whether developing cyborg insect surveillance or a nose-spray brain chemical to replace sleep, DARPA always keeps us on our toes trying to guess what on Earth (or beyond) they are going to come up with next. Will here it is folks, DARPA says they are now developing a submarine that can fly (or an airplane that can go under water—whichever way you choose to look at it.) The submersible aircraft/flying submarine would be used to get small clandestine teams to coastal waters unnoticed, so they can then sneak onto land less noticeably than landing an aircraft. 

Specifically, DARPA's strategic technology office wants a submersible aircraft that can reach a destination, whether it is 1,850km (1,000nm) away by air or 185km by sea or 22km traveling underwater, in less than 8 hours. Carrying a crew of eight and 910kg (2,000lb) of payload it would use a snorkel device to provide an air supply while submerged once at its target.

Now, your first reaction may well be that this sounds insanely James Bond/fictional, but keep in mind that DARPA has been able to pull off a lot of pretty far off ideas—including creating the Internet.

Even so, DARPA admits that this one is going to be tough, stating that: "Prior attempts to demonstrate a vehicle with the manoeuvrability of both a submersible and an aircraft have primarily explored approaches that would endow flight capability to platforms that were largely optimised for underwater operations. Unfortunately these attempts have been unsuccessful."

If you think you can come up with a concept that would help them be successful at it this time around, then DARPA is open to suggestions (http://www.darpa.gov/sto/solicitations/sn09-01/index.html). DARPA will be hosting a Proposers’ Day Conference for the Submersible Aircraft program on October 17, 2008. Your concept would have to identify how to overcome the technological limitations and include at least some preliminary proof that it's doable.

Here’s some helpful “duh” advice the agency is sharing with would-be collaborators: “Be advised, difficulties with developing such a platform will arise from the diametrically opposed requirements that exist for an airplane and a submarine.”

But, if anyone can create a flying submarine, it’s DARPA.

Posted by Rebecca Sato

Related posts:

DARPA Develops Brain Chemical to Replace Sleep
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/01/darpa-develops.html

Cyborg Insect Surveillance -The World's Privacy May Never Be the Same
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2008/03/pentagons-cybor.html

Comments

[Kevin]

Anyone remember the 60s TV show "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", they had a flying sub, hell I even had a plastic model of it.

[migeri]

DARPA didn't create the Internet - CERN did.

[migeri]

DARPA didn't create the Internet - CERN did.

[Lily]

migeri, don't where you get your facts, but you're wrong. DARPA did invent the Internet as we know it today.

Here's the detailed history of it if you're interested in getting your facts straight:

The development of what we now call the Internet started in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite, beating the United States into space. The powers behind the American military at the time became highly alarmed as this meant that the USSR could theoretically launch bombs into space, and then drop them anywhere on earth. In 1958 the concerns of people in the US military triggered the creation of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA's initial role was to jump start American research in technology, find safeguards against a space-based missile attack and to reclaim the technological lead from the USSR. After only 18 months after the creation of DARPA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency had developed and deployed the first US satellite. DARPA went on to have a direct contribution to the development of the Internet by appointing Joseph Licklider to head the new Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO).

It was the job of the IPTO to further the work previously done my members of the "SAGE" (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) program and develop technologies to protect the US against a space-based nuclear attack.

Licklider envisaged the potential benefits of a countrywide communications network, influencing his successors to implement his vision and to hire Lawrence Roberts who at that time was carrying out research with networks which was also being funded by DARPA.

Roberts led development of the ARPANet network architecture, and based it on the new idea of packet switching. A special computer called an Interface Message Processor was developed to realise the design. The ARPANet first went live in October 1969, with communications between the University of California in Los Angeles and the Stanford Research Institute.

The first networking protocol used on the ARPANet was the Network Control Program. In 1983, it was replaced with the TCP/IP protocol, which is still the standard used today.

In 1990, the National Science Foundation took over management of what was then called the NSFNet, and significantly expanded its reach by connecting it to the CSNET in Universities throughout North America, and later to the EUnet throughout research facilities in Europe.

[martin weiss]

if this is tough, get more hippies.
A submersible/sailboat-hangglider/hotair balloon would fit all your requirements.
It is all about rigging.
Take a sea kayak, add bottled gas and watertight compartments so if a hundred-foot wave hits it, no problem. Install rigging to erect sails and/or wings, with lift by hot air or helium, get altitude and glide at 150 mph.
There. Not so tough after all.
The details of submerged propulsion remain to be specified, but simple chemical interactions could create movement. Easier to use, say, Sodium/seawater jet than electric motors...even baking soda pushes boats. Okay. Break's over.

[Hamy]

Surely flight is not necessary. All they really need to do to achieve their aim is to use ground effect and lift the sub eight feet out of the water and hit the gas.

[EvilCosmicMonkey from Knoxville]

It may seem like a gadget that James Bond would love, but it also seems technically feasible. Really. If we can invent microscopic cameras & have satellites that can spot a car from orbit, why NOT a flying sub ? Or a submersible plane ( take your pick ) ?
Still no flying cars powered by vegetable oil, though.

[EvilCosmicMonkey from Knoxville]

What material ( s ) would be useful ? This would require a lightweight but flexible material that could stand up to stresses & pressure. I'm no expert, but I don't think that aluminum would cut it.
What materials or alloys do they construct small submersibles out of ?