INCREDIBLE Submarine Plane - Convair Submerging Seaplane
In 1962... the US navy had a submarine problem. Unknown threats under the sea that had become nuclear. The solution? the creation of a jet aircraft that could track and attack these iron beasts - an impossibly tall order.
This future plane needed to be able to find submarines fast, track them over the ocean, And believe it or not it needed to be able to hunt submarines in their own environment - underwater.
Hold your breath, because we are about to dive deep to explore the never built Convair Submerging Seaplane...
Since world war two, submarines defense had become a unique staple of war time efforts. Nazi U-boats had hunted allied convoys, and with the development of submarine launch nuclear cruise missiles, they now posed a grave threat on land based cities.
While submarine-hunting boats had been effective, the age of the jet engine provided additional opportunities that had yet to be explored. Perhaps a plane, with its ability to quickly fly over vast areas of the ocean, would be the idea submarine hunter-killer.
To tackle this deep water problem, the US navy commissioned four different studies into the idea of a submarine attack plane, with the winner to receive a grant for $36,000 for futher study, about 315,000 in 2021 dollars.
It was called the Convair and General Electric high-density seaplane. High density, because it would be able to go under the water itself. The plane would be 50.5 feet long, 15.39 meters, and have a wingspan of 39 feet, or 11.88 meters.
It would have three turbojet engines that would be waterproof and have the ability to seal when under the water. It would have a retractable hydrosky that would deploy for takeoff and landing, and it would have a little propeller on the underside of the tail that would allow it to move underwater.
When it comes to range, we need to clarify the difference between flying and underwater. It had a range of 300 to 500 nautical miles in the air, or around 926 kilometers, and a much shorter range of only 50 miles underwater or just shy of 100 kilometers.
For speed, it was capable of 225 knots, or 258 miles per hour in cruise, or around 417 kilometers per hour, so not as fast as a jet aircraft at all dispite having three engines. Underwater, it would only be able to move at a speed of 5 knots, or 6 miles per hour or 9.26 kilometers per hour. But before you think this is the slowest submarine plane you have ever heard of, keep in mind it could travel underwater for up to ten hours - before returning to base!
The plane would accomplish this by having air-tight engines, a closed-off fuel tank, and a crew compartment with an oxygen supply, with the rest of the plane flooding with water to go up to a depth of 75 feet, or 22 meters.
The idea was that when a call went out that a submarine was near, the plane would deploy off a boat and travel to the location rising up to only around 2,500 feet, or 700 meters above sea level, before landing on the water and diving below the waves. It would cruse underwater, deploy it payload up to 1500 pounds, 450 kilograms, before surfacing and flying home. Because of the weight of the weapon, and the ability to stay submerged for long periods, this plane would have been the perfect ambush craft for enemy convoys, as well as the submarine-hunting role.
There isn't much mention beyond these specifics as to how it would find a submarine in the shallow depths of only 75 feet, but we admit that this was a revolutionary engineering challenge at the time.
The design was shown publically in 1975 by Convair and General Electric and was worked on for about six months, in partnership with the institute of aeronautics and astronautics, and the US Navy beuro of weapons. However, the project seems to have sunk here, and not proceeded any futher than some water tests.
Its hard to say the exact reason why, but seemling this plane design was a jack of all trades, but a master of none - the plane wasn't a very good plane, with poor range and terrible speed. It was also a terrible boat and submarine, unable to dive deep nor go very fast.Perhaps if the engineers had been given more time they would have been able to work out all the kinks. We don't know for sure!
But I admit, the idea of a plane that can sink like a james bond car and then take off like nothing happened is an incredible idea. An idea that was just not possible for the powers in charge back in the 1960s. Althought we can totally imagine the look on the russians faces when they found out that this aircraft exists, and was more than capable for what it claimed!