Underwater Jet Engine / Warp Drive

"The Pursuit Marine Drive produces thrust by using the energy from
high-pressure steam to draw in water through an intake at the front and expel it at high speed through the rear. The steam emerges at high speed from a rearward-facing ring-shaped nozzle into a cone-shaped chamber, where it mixes with the water (see graphic). Shock waves created as the steam condenses are focused by the chamber to blast water out of the back."

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993321

"This high-velocity capability - a kind of "warp drive" for water - is based
on the physical phenomenon of supercavitation. This fluid-mechanical effect occurs when bubbles of water vapor form in the lee of bodies submerged in fast-moving water flows. The trick is to surround an object or vessel with a renewable envelope of gas so that the liquid wets very little of the body's surface, thereby drastically reducing the viscous drag. Supercavitating systems could mean a quantum leap in naval warfare that is analogous in some ways to the move from prop planes to jets or even to rockets and missiles."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CA29B-0EA6-1C70-84A9809EC588EF 21 Received on Thu Jan 30 21:21:00 2003