I experimented with model submarines many years ago at school in the U.K.At that time the 27 Mega cycle frequency would not work below the water level.I built a sub from the M.A.P. plans service (model areonautical press).It was made from block balsa wood sealed with 7 coats of banana oil, 2 coverings of wing tissue, and painted in dark admiralty grey paint.It had an 18 inch piano wire arm on the forward hydroplanes that the water pressure would push back giving the hydroplanes an upward angle causng it to surface.It would sail across the model boating pond surfacing and diving automatically.But on its second trip, it didn't re-surface.I waded out into the pond with my ear in the water trying to trace it by the electric motor noise that could be heard for another 1 1/2 hours until the battery failed.
2 years later I was at the same pond with a radio controlled M.T.B.The water was crystal clear that day.I was watching newts surface and dive a few feet from the ponds edge.I saw what appeared to be a very even shaped piece of wood with what looked like a submarine conning tower on it.I waded out and found my old submarine.I took it home, cleaned the battery terminals of corrosion and put new batteries in.It ran!But I never used it again.
Some 40 years later I saw a video clip of a radio controlled submarine at the Tokyo toy fair.I managed to get one from the O.E.M. at a very reasonable price.It remains the most advanced "ready to sail" sub available.This is because it has a mechanism that draws water in or expels it causing the sub to surface or dive without any forward movement.This makes it very maneuvarable.
It disappeared from the market over a year ago and has just "re-surfaced" from an Australian dealer shipping from Hong Kong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-TapcQUZLs
2 years later I was at the same pond with a radio controlled M.T.B.The water was crystal clear that day.I was watching newts surface and dive a few feet from the ponds edge.I saw what appeared to be a very even shaped piece of wood with what looked like a submarine conning tower on it.I waded out and found my old submarine.I took it home, cleaned the battery terminals of corrosion and put new batteries in.It ran!But I never used it again.
Some 40 years later I saw a video clip of a radio controlled submarine at the Tokyo toy fair.I managed to get one from the O.E.M. at a very reasonable price.It remains the most advanced "ready to sail" sub available.This is because it has a mechanism that draws water in or expels it causing the sub to surface or dive without any forward movement.This makes it very maneuvarable.
It disappeared from the market over a year ago and has just "re-surfaced" from an Australian dealer shipping from Hong Kong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-TapcQUZLs
