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From: terryr@ogccse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Hydrofoil carrier (was: Nuclear Powered Planes: Feasibility?)
Message-ID: <11709@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 25 Nov 89 04:04:36 GMT
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From: terryr@ogccse.ogc.edu (Terry Rooker)
The discussion about hydrofoil carriers has been interesting, but
their are some physical limitations to hydrofoils that limit
their usefulness.  This from memory, but given enough time I
could probably dig up the specific reference.  According to
a text on ship design the power requirements for a hydrofoil
are exponential which effectively limits the displacement to
a destroyer sized vessel.  since it was an older text I 
belive destroyer sized was on the order of 2-4000 tons.
Considering the power requirements it seems that most of the
hull volume would be dedicated to power plant and fuel.
Even if excess volume was available, you can't operate many
aircraft off of a 4000 ton hull.

Terry Rooker
terryr@cse.ogc.edu