Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!pacbell.com!pacbell!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: H202 Submarine Propulsion (was Re: Nicknames)
Message-ID: <1990Aug9.020228.9274@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 9 Aug 90 02:02:28 GMT
References: <1990Jul24.024932.21117@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul28.161240.2473@cbnews.att.com> <1990Aug2.042311.3031@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 29
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>From: kml@mosquito.cis.ufl.edu (Kevin Lahey)
>>... This had been fitted with an experimental hydrogen
>>peroxide propulsion system...
>
>I remember reading about a similar propulsions system which the Germans 
>developed, and apparantly used, at the end of WWII...
>any more information about this?  It always sounded like a wonderful idea,
>and I wondered why we didn't hear any more about it.

This is probably the Walther engine, which decomposed hydrogen peroxide
and then burned diesel fuel (I think) in the oxygen that resulted.  The
big advantage, obviously, was a high-powered engine that did not need
air.  (Most people don't realize how limited the conventional subs of
the time were; once they submerged, they could stay under for a day or
two at most, and speed on batteries was typically *two knots*.)  The idea
looked good, but three things stalled it.  One was the obvious problem,
that Germany was rapidly going down the tubes.  Another was competition
from a rethinking of the conventional design, in favor of much higher
battery capacity.  That improved the conventional sub so much that it
became the standard for later versions, and the Walther engine's
advantages did not look as impressive any more.  The death knell was
nuclear propulsion, which made all the chemically-fuelled subs look
like toys by comparison.

                                         Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                          henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry