China says new supersonic sub would reach San Francisco in 100 minutes

August 26, 2014 - Traveling from Shanghai to San Francisco in under two hours may sound like a fantasy, but China believes it's figured out how to design an underwater vehicle that can make the idea a reality.

More worryingly, though, is the possibility that the technology will be used to develop even more dangerous weaponry.

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a reply to: nighthawk1954

Damn, just imagine how much road kill that could equate to.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

That's it!


The Chinese are obviously out of control and a threat to world peace.

*Removes Lee's Kitchen and Madame Wongs take outs from speed dial in protest.

This is a double post.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Could it be SFO has better Chinese takeout? They can get it home before it gets cold. Neat.

Im sure many countries have ideas on who to achieve this on paper, but to build the technology, then show that it works is a whole other ball game, one that china is not really that good at. I understand they steal a lot of technology in order to fast track and cut out all the research and development spending, keeping their cost down. But to build something never before seen or used. i just dont think they could acheive this.

a reply to: Glassbender777

Don't underestimate them. They're much much better than they used to be. On the academic side, the typical quality of their papers went from mostly junk 15-20 years ago to often being similar to US/Europe standards now.

In my personal interaction and making overly broad cultural stereotypes, Chinese scientists are more creative and interesting than other Asian nationalities.

Think about the Cold War. The USSR's fundamental capability & creativity in intellectual science was as good as the West's. They were crippled however by an economic system and political system which could not successfully engineer and produce.

The Chinese do NOT have that problem at all---in fact it is now the West that doesn't have the economic and political capability and will to produce & deploy technology economically.

Think a sub traveling that fast would sound like a jet flying over your house.

Sound travels faster in water and i wonder what a underwater sonic boom (~1500m/s in water.)would sound like.
Or how many fish it would kill.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

My question would be: how much heat would be generated by all that speed through all that water? How would it be dissipated and what would be the effects on the ocean after just a single trip?

Personally, I think this is BS... A submarine traveling at supersonic speeds underwater. Yeah, right. I think the technological challenges would far outweigh any benefit, not to mention the effect on ocean critters. I am also pretty sure that this would not be done stealthily, but would result in sound that would be like ringing a huge gong inside a closet.

That is well over 6000 kilometers an hour, btw.

Over right around, slightly more than 4000 miles per hour.

umm... underwater.

If they can do it, they can make travel faster than any airplane, even the beloved and now defunct Concorde.

I doubt the airplane industry particularly Boeing and Airbus, will like this as less people will fly and more people take subs across the international waters. Honestly, I'd rather be under the water than in the air. The danger is still there, but I'd rather not face the possibility of falling from the sky, especially with the earth's magnetism constantly in question these days.

If China can build a sturdy vessel, without cheap crap that can become compromised in harsh sea conditions, they will be able to corner the world market on quick and efficient cross continental travel.

But then America would be pissed, some of these vessels may be targeted in "terrorist attacks" and the whole bit.

I support China making this possible. SOMEBODY HAS TO.

a reply to: ArchPlayer

Ok...so you are saying that planes (with much less substance to plow through) cant match the speed mentioned, but submarines can?

There is a reason we can fly on a 20 year old Boeing cruising at like 400-500 mph, which an ocean going passenger type vessel, newly crafted with all the bells and whistles, will only get up to what..20-30 knots at best?

So what happens when something like that collides with sea life at speed?

if ANY of the black projects we suspect are in existence ARE in existence then this is probably possible.

To think inside the box about sound waves in water is very silly bearing in mind we know that the UFOs we see almost every day are not alien in origin but military. We already know the theoretical ways that 'UFOs' move through space by collapsing space in front of them and creating space behind them so why not in water? We have threads on here which document many USO undersea UFOs which can move at this kind of speed.

Are we really still thinking this kind of transport cannot be possible in this day and age?

Another trick many governments use, is to describe a technology which is just a little ahead of current mainstream thinking while at the same time developing something which is far far ahead of it. It is almost like saying "we can soon do this" and this creates a belief in a limit to the country's ability.

If USA think that China can "soon do that" and USA have been able to do that for years, then they will be thinking China does not have the same capability as itself.

Intelligence is often a pulling together of pieces of information from various sources and inferring a technical level from this information. Look at Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Countries all over the world must be playing the same game of disinformation.

I wonder how many undersea trenches and craters will be the result of something like this hitting sandbars and reefs,not to mention rocks and undersea mountains and volcanos.

originally posted by: bbracken677
a reply to: ArchPlayer

Ok...so you are saying that planes (with much less substance to plow through) cant match the speed mentioned, but submarines can?

There is a reason we can fly on a 20 year old Boeing cruising at like 400-500 mph, which an ocean going passenger type vessel, newly crafted with all the bells and whistles, will only get up to what..20-30 knots at best?

Give me a plane that can reach Frisco from China in 110 minutes? Can't think of one. While it may could be possible, for whatever reason, airlines are not flying fast. As far as my knowledge for a commercial craft the Concorde was the only one that was remotely fast, getting across from NYC to London in 3hrs, and now that is gone. Now its a 8-10 hr flight.

If they have figured out how to counter act the effect of gravity from the earth and any other magnetic attractions, then that same field would form a bubble around the vehicle so there would be no friction in the water, and no inertia either. It is the same thing you see happening in actual flying saucer vids. Just my opinion though.

a reply to: ArchPlayer

Can't think of a plane that would do that? No joke! Why would you even consider that a sub could do that?

No offense to anyone, but the OP is so freaking ridiculous that it boggles the mind that anyone would consider this believable.

Does anyone realize the difference in drag and friction between water and air?

Let's employ some science. The difference in drag is directly proportional to the difference in density of the fluid medium.

The density of water is roughly 1000 kg/m3, whereas the density of air is 1.2 kg/m3 (that's per cubic meter).

Ergo, the drag of a sub going through water vs a similar shape traveling through air (same drag coefficient) would be roughly 800 times greater.

To suggest that a sub could travel at over 6000 km/hr through water when there is not a single plane in existence that can accomplish that is.... ridiculous. Ludicrous. Laughable. Stupid.