DEEP THINKING

摘要

THE IDEA FOR THE DEEPEST-DIVING acrylic submersible in the world-able to descend more than 13,000 feet-started with thickness. "Acrylic, up until a few years ago, had been really restricted in how thick you could make it," says John Ramsay, principal design engineer at Triton Submarines. The difference between the Triton 3300/3 (able to take three people to about 3,300 feet) that launched a decade ago and the new 13000/2 Titanic Explorer is acrylic about three times thicker. "We discovered that we could go much deeper with the new technology." Being able to go deeper meant thinking about new features. The traditional Triton design has pontoons on each side of the sphere. They're great for surface buoyancy, but they create resistance that's problematic when descending or ascending from deeper depths. And, Ramsay says: "When you're in those depths, you're getting into a really silty bottom on the seabed. When you land down, if the thrusters are anywhere near the seabed, it stirs everything up and you end up in this mess of suspended silt. We wanted a system where the thrusters were really high up off the seabed." The idea of using "gull wings" was born. They tuck in for ascent and descent and deploy as needed to reveal thrusters, cameras and lighting. The sub's launch-and-recovery system is similar to those Triton has built for previous models used on superyachts and yacht-support vessels, and Ramsay says the gull-wing design likely has other applications. "We have started looking at whether it would be possible to order your sub with whatever body style you want and whatever depth that you want," he says. "That's the ideal situation."