Diving scooter

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Technical divers with Gavin diving scooters

A diving scooter ( English Diver Propulsion Vehicle , DPV ) describes a drive for individual people in the water. It is driven by an electric motor. A similar device that is used only or primarily on the surface of the water is a water sledge .

drive

A battery of accumulators supplies an electric motor with electricity, which drives the propeller .

The big advantage over an internal combustion engine is that you don't need a snorkel . This means that an electric diving scooter can also be used at greater depths, and its operation is only slightly restricted by environmental and water protection regulations. The maximum immersion depth is limited by the pressure resistance of the housing.

Disadvantages of the electric drive are the lower speed and range compared to the combustion engine, the advantages of better controllability, the independence of depth and the relative noiselessness.

history

The diving scooter can also be viewed as a further miniaturization of the larger manned war-time torpedo . In contrast to these, the diver is pulled by the device and does not sit on it.

Similar devices were z. B. developed and used by Jacques-Yves Cousteau . You can see these devices u. a. in the film Welt ohne Sonne from 1965. Presumably there was a parallel development in many countries with the increasing sport of diving.

The non-powered immersion sledge can be seen as a forerunner. This is pulled by the boat using a rope and allows the diver a flight, an overview of the underwater world.

Others

  • On June 29, 2012, Achim Schlöffel was the first to dive through the English Channel with the help of two diving scooters and two rebreather diving devices , covering a distance of 65 kilometers. He dived from Dover to the French coast near Calais in about eight hours, followed by a decompression phase of about three hours.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franziska Gerlach: 65 kilometers under water . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 4, 2012, accessed on August 10, 2015.
    Schlöffel dives through the English Channel! Taucher.net, June 29, 2012, accessed August 10, 2015.