swimmer2 said:I see no one has been on this thresd for about a year, so I'll stop now to see if anyone is interested in anything else about the SES100A.
Especially anything about the follow on concepts for the 100 knot navy
tsmero said:like i said, some good pictures and lot of XR1 sinking and being towed back eventually by our chase boat which was a big bertram and a luhrs.
flateric said:...and surely SES-100A was much more sexy than Bell-Textron's SES-100B one...
I worked on the SES 100A from 1968-1971 at the El Monte facility for Aerojet. I was a liaison engineer with Dr. Richard Wade and would take his hydrodynamic formulas and create drawings that our experimental machinists, Pete and Dave, would then create 1/32 scale models that we would then take to Cal Tech and run in their water tunnel. We also created a 1/8 scale model of the ship to test in the David Taylor Model Basin in Carderock, Maryland. I also worked on the Data Acquisition System, the on board computer, that took a reading of over 100 transducers every 1/10 of a second on the test runs. It's strange that In two different articles, one in Encyclopedia Brittanica that never mentioned the SES 100 and another from Wikipedia on Suerface Effect Ships that never mentioned Aerojet.Wow! I was informed of this thread by swimmer1. He and I worked for Aerojet back in 1973-4 as scuba divers in Sitcum Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. I was 18, then turned 19 during this time. We had many adventures, from spending literally hundreds of hours working on rigging and air bags under the testcraft, to training missions, to finding parts dropped off the pier by our august band of technicians. We even got to jump out of a helicopter into the Straits of Juan De Fuca during a storm when the testcraft hit a log at about 40 knots with a bunch of senators and high ranking Navy personnel on board, using long screwdrivers to pry out splinters of wood that were restricting intake flow of water for the waterjets. We received letters of commendation for that, a write up in the company newspaper and free beer. Did I mention I was I was 19? Probably the best and most adventurous job any young man could have, Aerojet treated us both right in retrospect. The photos in the thread are interesting, the ones with the raised covers over the engine bays are later than the one with no covers. Also, this was a 100 ton craft, built in Tacoma, WA, at Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., long since deceased. The 100B was built in Louisiana by Bell Aircraft, utilizing some different technologies to see which was more efficient. These ships were going to be the precursors to the 100 knot Navy, but got smacked in the teeth by the first gas crisis during the time I was there.
The 100A utilized thin catamaran type sidewalls to provide stability as it ran through the water. There was a "bow seal" (seen in black in the photos) on the front to contain air pumped under the vessel to provide lift, then tilt back underneath as it hit waves to reduce drag. In the stern was a similar rubber membrane wall which performed the same function as the bow seal, with the difference that it had several adjustible sheets of aluminum to provide strength and prevent blowout of the cushioning air. This could be tilted to raise or lower the stern seal as a means to trim the ship. Visible on the photos, on the surface about 3/4 of the way back, are louvers, connected to barometric sensors, located under the hull, to direct these louvers to open and close as waves ran under the craft and thereby mitigating displacement of the air cushion. In this way, porpoising of the testcraft was reduced, providing a very smooth ride, and allowing speeds of up to 100+ knots.
Also visible on the cut away view, in the lower corner, is shown the portside engine room, where I began my adventure with Aerojet as an oil wiper. These spaces were inspected before every test run, literally with white gloves (this is TRUE!), to make sure nothing was ingested by the motors. We used to crawl around on these damn things while they were running occasionally, and subsequently, I'm a bit deaf today. OSHA didn't exist back then.
I see no one has been on this thresd for about a year, so I'll stop now to see if anyone is interested in anything else about the SES100A.
Just found this thread as I research my Grandfather’s past at Aerojet. His name is Robert Thomson and moved to Tacoma as an engineer for Aerojet and retells the fun he had working on the SES100A.Wow! I was informed of this thread by swimmer1. He and I worked for Aerojet back in 1973-4 as scuba divers in Sitcum Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. I was 18, then turned 19 during this time. We had many adventures, from spending literally hundreds of hours working on rigging and air bags under the testcraft, to training missions, to finding parts dropped off the pier by our august band of technicians. We even got to jump out of a helicopter into the Straits of Juan De Fuca during a storm when the testcraft hit a log at about 40 knots with a bunch of senators and high ranking Navy personnel on board, using long screwdrivers to pry out splinters of wood that were restricting intake flow of water for the waterjets. We received letters of commendation for that, a write up in the company newspaper and free beer. Did I mention I was I was 19? Probably the best and most adventurous job any young man could have, Aerojet treated us both right in retrospect. The photos in the thread are interesting, the ones with the raised covers over the engine bays are later than the one with no covers. Also, this was a 100 ton craft, built in Tacoma, WA, at Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., long since deceased. The 100B was built in Louisiana by Bell Aircraft, utilizing some different technologies to see which was more efficient. These ships were going to be the precursors to the 100 knot Navy, but got smacked in the teeth by the first gas crisis during the time I was there.
The 100A utilized thin catamaran type sidewalls to provide stability as it ran through the water. There was a "bow seal" (seen in black in the photos) on the front to contain air pumped under the vessel to provide lift, then tilt back underneath as it hit waves to reduce drag. In the stern was a similar rubber membrane wall which performed the same function as the bow seal, with the difference that it had several adjustible sheets of aluminum to provide strength and prevent blowout of the cushioning air. This could be tilted to raise or lower the stern seal as a means to trim the ship. Visible on the photos, on the surface about 3/4 of the way back, are louvers, connected to barometric sensors, located under the hull, to direct these louvers to open and close as waves ran under the craft and thereby mitigating displacement of the air cushion. In this way, porpoising of the testcraft was reduced, providing a very smooth ride, and allowing speeds of up to 100+ knots.
Also visible on the cut away view, in the lower corner, is shown the portside engine room, where I began my adventure with Aerojet as an oil wiper. These spaces were inspected before every test run, literally with white gloves (this is TRUE!), to make sure nothing was ingested by the motors. We used to crawl around on these damn things while they were running occasionally, and subsequently, I'm a bit deaf today. OSHA didn't exist back then.
I see no one has been on this thresd for about a year, so I'll stop now to see if anyone is interested in anything else about the SES100A.