In article , Dan wrote:
John Smith wrote:
In article ,
Charles Vincent wrote:

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 "Flying Sub" from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
The Flying Sub was launched and recovered from a bay in the forward
section of the Seaview.
(You youngsters may have to do a Goodle search to learn what I am
referring to. Testor's sold a model of it.)

It always entered the water at and angle and velocity guaranteed to
cause severe injury or death to the occupants.

Nah. You just don't understand modern engineering.

It had big RASP (Rocket-Assist-Sea-Penetration) packs which were triggered
_just_ before water contact. The massive forward thrust was exactly offset
by the increased drag of the water, and thus, there was zero net change in
velocity.

*snicker*



As for the DARPA project, it's *EASY*!!

Start with the basic V-22 Osprey design, watertight the entire hull, and
structurally reinforce as needed, for the maximum desired operating depth.

Next replace the Rolls Royce AE1107C engines with appropriate electric
drives. Extend the drive shaft out the rear of the wing, with a
variable pitch _water_ propeller on that end. Add clutching so that
either end can be engaged/disengaged independently.

Lastly, pull out the fuel tanks and replace with a 'suitcase nuke'
power plant.

Revisit the aircraft structural components, and scale up for the
increased weight load.

Add ballast tank(s) as needed to achieve neutral buoyancy.

All the rest is 'implementation details' - trivial!


Like I said, nothing difficult about it. One might even say it was
a "no-brainer". snicker