'Sea Flyer' Heads to San Diego
Navy Newsstand
Story Number: NNS040714-18
Release Date: 7/15/2004 5:59:00 AM
By Journalist Seaman Ryan McGinley, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (NNS) -- Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Navatek Ltd. completed the first phase of a technology demonstrator known as the "Sea Flyer," July 9.
Sea Flyer is a naval ship redesigned with underwater hull form technology that improves stability and speed.
"In order to ensure technological superiority, you have to look at new technology. You have to get beyond the laboratory stage and start building technology demonstrators to demonstrate to the acquisition community and the fleet that this is technology that can be important," said Gary Jensen, director, Greater Middle Pacific Branch ONR.
Under an $18 million contract, Navatek Ltd., a Hawaii-based company that researches and develops advanced ship hull systems, equipped the Navy's SES-200 ship with a 170-ton Navatek underwater lifting body that enables the hull to be fully out of the water at higher speeds. Navatek's patented technology is similar to that which NASA uses with spacecraft.
"There are a lot of similarities why a craft underwater should be shaped like a craft re-entering the earth's atmosphere," said Steven Loui, president of Navatek Ltd. "The 'art of the possible' is that we want to find what kind of speed and sea keeping you can get from this hull form."
With the hull almost completely out of the water at higher speeds, Navatek has seen a significant increase in stability over comparable vessels.
"There's been an 80 percent reduction in motion, compared to a ship of similar size," said Loui.
He also said this would improve the capability to land a helicopter on a ship smaller than 5,000 tons, approximately the size of a patrol boat and possibly a frigate-sized vessel. Jensen added that while the ship is significantly more stable at sea, there are even more advantages.
"It's certainly fascinating technology. It's a very stable ride," he said. "This kind of technology gives you that slow speed stability, as well as high-speed stability. [But] one of the big advantages it gives you is not only is it stable at speed, but it's stable when you're sitting dead in the water."
Loui said the most successful part of the process has been how effectively the vessel met their expectations during the test phases.
"The part that we believe was the most successful was that our speed, resistance [and] motion predictions were within 2 to 3 percent of the actual performance," said Loui. "Proving that we can predict the performance and how the hull form performs, that sort of satisfies ONR's vision of showing the rest of the Navy what's the art of the possible."
After completing tests and demonstrations here in Hawaii, Navatek and ONR will tow the vessel to San Diego, where it will perform more demonstrations and participate in exercises on the West Coast.
"The first stage of our testing was quite successful, and now when we go to San Diego, we'll be able to expose the technology and concept to more Navy people on the West Coast," said Loui.
The technology is still in the development phase, and the Navy has no plans as to how they will proceed with the hull form.
"We've demonstrated that this hull form has some unique and very positive attributes, but in the end, the Navy has to determine where and how those attributes can be used," said Loui. "It's up to [them] to determine where it's applicable, if at all, and what features are desirable."
While no decision has been made, Jensen said it's apparent that the technology creates promising aspirations for the future of the Navy.
"It's something of value to the Navy," said Jensen. "There is a desire to see what you can gain from this kind of underwater hull form technology."
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