Great Machines: Submersibles: Scuba Driving
June 1, 2008
Two frontiers continue to tug at mankind’s innate need to explore: deep space and the deep. Although the former has forever been the playground of brazen fighter jocks and brainy flight scientists, thanks to maverick tycoon Richard Branson anyone with $200,000 will soon be able to hop aboard Virgin Galactic and blast into the heavens.
As for the oceans of the world, touring them largely remains the domain of either well-funded folks hunting for the ghost of the Titanic or adventurers willing to buy personal aquatic toys that for the most part adhere to the function and look of the Beatles’ yellow submarine—that is to say bulbous and cumbersome. Until now.
Two men from different sides of the globe and with radically different businesses and visions have built sub-machines that are sure to turn the heads and lighten the wallets of anyone who has dreamed of cruising in our waterworld autobahns. The sQuba takes its inspiration from James Bond, while the Super Falcon is something old Q would kill to have. Both distinguish themselves from past "underwater cars" in their ability to fly through the water as opposed to driving on a shallow seabed.
In the European corner is Frank Rinderknecht, founder of famed Swiss-based Porsche tuner Rinspeed. Rinderknecht has long been tinkering with automotive concept cars, and his website’s home page boasts a John Lennon quote ("You may say I’m a dreamer") that lays his passion for one-off innovation on the line.
"For quite some years, I’ve had the idea of turning the fiction of the [underwater] Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me into reality," says Rinderknecht, who dove into the creation of his sQuba car last June and finished earlier this year. A test run in Lake Zurich proved that the prototype works, and a production run "depends on interested third parties."
At first glance, the sQuba looks not much different than the nimble pocket rocket it is based on, the Lotus Elise (a vehicle that is quite popular with tinkerers, given its selection by Tesla as the platform for the world’s first electric sports car). But the devilishly clever components which make it sea-friendly are in the details.
Turning to Swiss engineering firm Esoro for the heavy lifting,
Rinderknecht replaced the Elise’s traditional engine with rechargeable
lithium-ion batteries that power three motors—one provides propulsion on land,
while the other two drive propellers for underwater touring. Moreover, two
Seabob jet drives in the nose help stabilize the vehicle, which is naturally
buoyant. Range is about 50 miles on land and three hours in the water.
"Driving the car on the [ocean] ground was never an option
because it wasn’t environmentally friendly," says Rinderknecht. Green concerns
aside, there was also the fact that the car could not simply dive to any depth
its partially carbon-fiber shell could sustain. The sQuba’s two occupants are
essentially scuba divers strapped into a sleek Elise, breathing bottled O2.
Because staying at depths greater than 20 feet for any long period of time
would require slow decompressing to avoid the bends, sQuba is electronically
limited to a 10-meter (33-foot) diving depth.
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