USS Albacore Experimental Tests

Image 1 above shows folding bow planes in an upright position; I didn't know that AGS-569 had this. SubBrief on Sierra-class commented that the Sierra was the earliest class to have fully retractable bow planes.

Yep! Computers are great, but nothing beats the real thing!

Yeah, that is some super-secret squirrel stuff up in Idaho.

Aaron Amick

Speaking of testing, are you ever going to do an episode about the Idaho National Laboratory? I learned about that place from a coworker who lived near it. She said they tested submarines there. I was like "Wut? They test submarines in Idaho?"

I've read that the recent Virginia-class SSNs had extensive scale model testing. Computational Fluid Dynamics has come a long way, but models are still informative. I read it: https://web.archive.org/web/20150605233334/http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_11/submarine_stealth.html

Thank you for the explanation

I mean, they didn't "have" to. Building a model, miniature or full scale, before the real thing is not required, but a very good idea. But remember, air (a mixture of gases) behaves like a fluid. You can actually test car and airplane aerodynamics in water tanks (though its not as good as air) and you can test submarine hydrodynamics in air (though its not as good as water). And being that albacore was such a radical departure from from other designs in terms of streamlining. They wanted to prove to themselves that it was worthwhile continuing with the project before preceding with construction. :)

What I don't understand is why did they have to do wind tunnel testing before they could start construction?

👍 Momsen

Andrew MacDougall

I've visited her up at Portsmouth when I was a kid. The first time I learned about contra-rotating props.

John Benson