Hydrofoil

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International Moth Class with hydrofoils, which were introduced as a further development in the boat class from 2000
Passenger hydrofoil Flying Dolphin Zeus (Kometa type) near Piraeus
View to the right of the fuselage from above onto the V-surface of a (to the left) traveling hydrofoil, which partially protrudes out of the water

A hydrofoil or hydrofoil is a high speed watercraft , the speed increases by means of the dynamic lift lying under water hydrofoils (Hydrofoils) is lifted while driving. This means that the hull no longer touches the water. The vehicle “floats” over the surface of the water. Since then only a small part of the vehicle (wing and propeller as well as the rudder blade) is below the surface of the water, the displacement and the frictional resistance are significantly reduced. As a result, a higher speed is achieved with the same drive power.

History (1900-1934)

One of the first hydrofoils ( Ing.Enrico Forlanini , 1910)

The development of hydrofoil boats began around 1900, although there were already ideas for this. Shortly after 1900, the Italian airship designer Enrico Forlanini (1848–1930) worked on the development of flying boats. This resulted in the first operational hydrofoil, built in 1906, which he is generally considered to be the inventor. He crossed Lake Maggiore with it and reached a speed of 38 knots (around 70 km / h) with his propeller-driven hydrofoil. Because of his merits, the Milan Linate Airport was named after him.

At that time, in March 1906, the American hydrofoil pioneer William E. Meacham described the basic principle of hydrofoils in a scientific article. As a result, the American inventor A. G. Bell also dealt with this technology from 1908 and in 1919, after several test boats, presented the first usable hydrofoil (Bell HD-4).

In England, the English shipbuilder John Isaac Thornycroft also used this technology in the context of military applications. He had studied at the University of Glasgow with Lord Kelvin and Professor William John Macquorn Rankine and was very successful in the design and propulsion of torpedo boats for the Royal Navy . He experimented with the elements of the hydrofoil to increase the speed of his torpedo boats.

In Germany, Hanns von Schertel had been involved with hydrofoils since 1919, his goal was to quickly transport people on the water. His greatest success was a demonstration for the Cologne-Düsseldorf Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt AG with its eighth test boat, the Silbervogel . With this boat and seven passengers, he carried out a successful demonstration trip from Mainz to Cologne and back in April 1934. The boat had an output of 50 hp and reached a speed of 55 km / h. With speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour, Fritz von Opel won the “Trophée de Paris” on the Seine on July 14, 1927 with the hydrofoil OPEL II.

Further development and current use

In 1940, the Sachsenberg brothers took over a site with shipyards in Harburg and built hydrofoils of different sizes from 5 to 100 tons for the navy and the army, newly developed with Schertel . The group around Schertel and his partner, chief designer Karl Johann Büller, continued these developments after the war in Switzerland as Supramar AG , which led to the development of the first commercial hydrofoil PT-10 , which was put into service on Lake Maggiore in 1953. They then granted the license to build boats after their construction to the Cantieri Navali Rodriquez in Messina (Italy). A little later, similar constructions emerged in the Soviet Union and the USA .

Between 1974 and 1985, Boeing about 30 passenger ships of the type Boeing 929 ago that reached on wings a cruising speed of 80 km / h.

Hydrofoils are mainly used today for passenger transport on rivers, e.g. B. in Russia , used for transfers between the mainland and islands and between archipelagos. Military projects have also been successfully implemented in several countries; in the meantime they have largely been taken out of service and replaced by vehicles with a more simple design and greater load capacity. Because of the sensitivity of the hydrofoil systems to high waves and the inability to operate at low speeds, hydrofoil boats have proven to be less useful for military use.

America's Cup AC-72 Class Boats with Foils (2013)

There are also hydrofoil boats with sail propulsion (e.g. Hydroptère or boats of the International Moth Class ). The Vestas Sailrocket was built with hydrofoils to break the speed record for sailboats. In November 2011 it reached a speed of more than 120 km / h under optimal circumstances  .

In 2013, underwater wings, so-called hydrofoils or foils for short , were used for the first time at an America’s Cup . At the 35th America's Cup 2017, all catamarans were equipped with foils. Oars and foils are driven by hydraulics using the grinder .

In 2016, seven boats were fitted with hydrofoils for the first time on the Vendée Globe circumnavigation . The boats in the first three places all sailed with foils . The winner of the 2016/2017 race was Armel Le Cléac'h (BANQUE POPULAIRE VIII) in a record time of 74 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 46 seconds.

Types

Hydrofoil for passenger transport with V-shaped surfaces
Military hydrofoil with T-faces

There are three types of hydrofoil construction, with different procedures for regulating buoyancy:

Ladder type
A number of horizontal wings are drawn in between vertical spars attached to the fuselage. With increasing speed, one surface after the other rises out of the water, the buoyancy is regulated in stages, so to speak.
Partially submerged type (also U-type, V-type)
Single or multiple bent wings (i.e. in a V or U shape) are attached to the fuselage with vertical or radial struts. The buoyancy changes continuously as the surfaces immerse or emerge.
Fully submerged type (also T type)
Horizontal surfaces are mounted on one or more vertical bars with adjustable angles. The angles are constantly and actively readjusted so that the surfaces always remain fully immersed and maintain a constant depth.

The ladder type never caught on. The partially submerged construction method, according to which hundreds of Soviet ferry and military vehicles were built, is increasingly being replaced by the more complex, but more efficient, fully submerged construction.

Today hydrofoils are used almost exclusively to transport passengers. American Boeing hydrofoils or those manufactured under license in the PRC are often used, which are based on the principle of fully submerged wings. The Russian and Ukrainian types " Raketa ", " Woschod " and " Kolchida ", which are based on the principle of partially submerged wings, are also widely used. They are characterized by a particularly simple and robust design. The Italian Rodriquez shipyard produces passenger hydrofoils of the V-type "Foilmaster", which are mainly used in coastal traffic in the Mediterranean.

In the meantime, various designers have come up with hybrid concepts in which conventional hulls were equipped with wings to increase the speed of travel. The best-known concept of this type is “Hysucat” from South Africa, in which a rigid, unregulated wing is mounted on the foredeck between the hulls of a catamaran. It is currently being used successfully in more than twenty newbuildings, which have been able to increase their cruising speed by more than 15% with the same engine power. In the case of some T-types, the adjustment is directly mechanical, with the fuselage being divided into two parts, similar to a stepped fuselage, and equipped with an articulated hinge. When the front part slides up as the speed increases, it pulls the rear fuselage up at the front and thereby adjusts the wing attached to it.

The fastest wind-powered watercraft from 2007 to 2012, the Hydroptère , is also a trimaran with Type V wings.

literature

  • Ships - planing boats - hydrofoils . In: Expansion , issue 1/1960, pp. 20-27, Paul-Christiani-Verlag, Konstanz 1960.

Web links

Commons : Hydrofoils  - Collection of Images
Wiktionary: hydrofoil  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz von Opel: Desperado with rocket propulsion. In: Spiegel Online . July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017 .
  2. Popular Mechanics , February 1961, pp. 102ff
  3. Liang Yun, Alan Bliault: High Performance Marine Vessels , Springer, 2012, pp 164
  4. Seattle times October 22, 1997 "Boeing decided to get out of the hydrofoil business after building 32. It sold a license to build the hydrofoils to Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries".
  5. Yacht.de - Website: Fable world records for Sailrocket 2. On: www.yacht.de , November 19, 2012, accessed on May 10, 2014 .
  6. About fliers and high fliers - the technique of foiling. By Andreas Kling. Retrieved from FAZ.NET from June 19, 2017 on June 20.