On Oct 9, 4:05*pm, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
Submersing and airplane is easy. *Getting it to fly again is the hard part.

"Charles Vincent" wrote in message

...



Vehicle would be used to secretly drop military teams along coastal
locations -- Sharon Gaudin

October 9, 2008 (Computerworld) It may sound like something out of a James
Bond movie, but the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency is putting out the call for researchers to come up with a design
for a submersible aircraft.

Yup, you read it right. DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department of
Defense, is looking for someone to prove that a vehicle can be built that
will fly, as well as maneuver underwater.

The call for research went out earlier this month, and initial proposals
are due by 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 1.

As an agency, DARPA is no stranger to working on and putting out calls for
forward-looking technology.

Late in July, the California Institute of Technology announced that
researchers there had developed a high-resolution microscope, a project
funded in part by DARPA, that is small enough to sit on a computer chip..
The tiny microscope has the magnifying power of a top-quality optical
microscope and is designed so scientists can use it in the field to
analyze blood samples for malaria or to check water supplies for
pathogens.

And DARPA is also behind the annual Urban Challenge, a 60-mile race among
up to 20 driverless, self-guided vehicles. The DoD hopes the event -- and
the research that goes into getting the cars ready -- will give them new
technology to use on the battlefield.

In its latest call for technology, the agency said it is looking to
"maintain its tactical advantage for future coastal insertion missions;
DARPA is interested in exploring radical new technologies that can provide
a game changing DoD capability for inserting small teams, clandestinely,
along coastal locations."

In a statement, DARPA said that "prior attempts to demonstrate a vehicle
with the maneuverability of both a submersible and an aircraft have
primarily explored approaches that would endow flight capability to
platforms that were largely optimized for underwater operations." Those
efforts, the agency said, "have been unsuccessful largely because the
design requirements for a submersible and an aircraft are diametrically
opposed."

DARPA noted that a submersible aircraft requires the speed and range of an
aircraft and the loiter capabilities of a boat; along with the stealth of
a submarine.

The agency is first looking for conceptual design proposals. The proposals
must also identify technical challenges and outline models or experiments
that will show how those challenges can be overcome.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

They did that with a vintage Boeing model. Can't call the model
number but they took off and dumped in the lake due to lack of fuel.

Harry K