(Credit:
OTB)
Whether it's tacking your 10 meter off Tahiti or slipping over the gunwale of a super tanker in the Gulf of Aden, this stylish line of footwear is sure to keep you high and dry.
The OTB line of boots and topsiders uses footwear technology developed for high-performance boat shoes worn by U.S. Navy SEALs, according to OTB Footwear, of Scituate, Mass. OTB stands for "over the beach," navy parlance for sandy delivery.
The company says it designs products for "specific adventures" rather than fashion. The shoes are made from "water friendly synthetics" and feature plenty of ventilating mesh.
The perforated flat sole, or razor siping, is cut to channel water away and prevent the wearer from hydroplaning. Best of all, the shoes are stealthy; there's no tell-tale squeak on any kind of deck, wet or dry. A recessed arch on the outsole is helpful when climbing rungs. The result is fast-drying, sure-footed traction on both dry and wet surfaces, available in a range of styles and colors.
One caveat, keep them away from the heater and don't leave them to dry on the dash with the windows closed, as they can come unglued.
The Poseidon-pictured here in blue and white-runs $85. Over The Beach and into The Clubhouse, as the great sea dog himself would have it.
(Credit:
OTB)
(Credit:
SkySails )
For the first time, the US Navy is using a new breed of sailing ship to deliver military equipment, a move that can potentially reduce fuel costs by 20 percent to 30 percent, or roughly $1,600 a day per ship, according to the ship's owners.
The Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) has chartered the "kite-assisted", fuel-saving 400-foot MV Beluga to deliver Air Force and Army cargo to from Europe to the US.
The MV Beluga uses a paraglider-shaped, SkySails-System, which supplements its conventional, internal combustion engines. The sail is basically a huge, computer-controlled kite that soars 100 to 300 yards into the air, using the wind to tow the ship at the end of a long tear-proof, synthetic rope.
The SkySails System is operated by the crew from a workstation on the bridge. All the steering and flight path adjustments are done automatically. "Emergency actions" are taken care of with a "push of a button." But the SkySail is only deployed offshore, outside the three-mile zone and traffic separation areas--just in case.
Unlike conventional sails, the kite has no superstructures that can get in the way of loading and unloading dockside, or scrape the bottom side of bridges as it sails under. The kite folds up, and can be stowed in an area the size of a telephone booth, according to developer SkySails of Hamburg, Germany. And, the SkySail can "generate two to three times more power per square meter sail area than conventional sails," according to the company. The environmental benefits have yet to calculated.
Though wind power was not a factor in awarding the contract, the shipping company was likely "able to capitalize on fuel savings to make its offer more competitive," according to MSC. "MSC values innovation that leads to cost savings," said Captain Nick Holman, of Sealift Logistics Command Europe.
(Credit:
Northrop Grumman)
Construction of the X-47B unmanned, tailless, stealth jet is ahead of schedule, with the first flight scheduled for November 2009, reports defense contractor Northrop Grumman.(pdf)
The X-47B is expected to be the first tailless UAV jet to operate off an aircraft carrier, which includes catapult launches and arrested landings; to do that it will also need to be capable of maneuvering precisely and autonomous around the flight deck. But none of that is expected to happen until sea trials in 2011.
The plane, developed under the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, has the "potential to transform naval aviation", according advocates.
The Navy envisions it as a force multiplier to be deployed for everything from long range precision bombing runs to close air support.
Classed roughly as "strike fighter-sized" jet capable of high, "subsonic" speed, it boasts a 4,500 pound pay load, and a 40,000 foot operational ceiling. The project has had to overcome a number of marine environment specific challenges including dealing with the corrosive salt-water environment and the problem of directing what is essentially a remote-control plane within a carrier's high electromagnetic interference bubble.
The USS Winston S. Churchill follows a suspected pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean.
(Credit: U.S. Navy)Pirates have grown mighty bold around the Horn of Africa of late--so bold that the Navy is reportedly considering the deployment of 30-foot, armed robo-boats to challenge the dusty buccaneers. Surely they'll mend their ways.
Pirate RPG round stuck in metal hull. No word on how Hypalon inflatable tubes would hold up to similar abuse.
(Credit: U.S. Navy)The Navy began testing the Israeli Protector unmanned surface vehicle (USV) last year. There is a civilian version of these rigid-hulled inflatables built by Rayglass Boats in New Zealand, a common enough sight around any harbor that's even used as the official chase boat for the America's Cup. But you'd hardly equate these with the unmanned version.
Extensively tweaked by defense contractors RAFAEL, BAE Systems, and Lockheed Martin, the Protector looks to be a full-on armed plug-and-play, anti-terror surveillance and reconnaissance marauder (PDF). It comes equipped with a stabilized mini-Typhoon, remote-controlled weapon station (PDF) cameras, radar equipment, and Toplite electro-optics.
And in this corner: Somali pirates generally operate out of a brace or more of what look to be 6- to 9-meter outboard-driven, open-fishing skiffs. Armed with RPGs and AKs, they either surround and intimidate a ship into stopping or lure them in with false distress calls, according to the International Maritime Bureau. In any case, it seems fair to assume that they would dearly like to get their hands on a remote-controlled Protector.
Nekton Research's Transphibian uses Nektor flexible fins for both propulsion and control.
(Credit: Nekton Research)One contender for that task is the Transphibian, a 3-foot-long autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) created by Durham, N.C.-based Nekton Research. The Transphibian is designed to identify mines and map the seabed by swimming and crawling through places where troops or ships are likely to follow. Soon, the company hopes to field a type of "kamikaze" suicide model armed with 14 pounds of plastic explosive that can self-destruct and take nearby mines with it. Meanwhile, the human operator stays safely behind the joystick.
This class of AUV is expected to "replace mine-sweeping ships and perform dangerous jobs now done by specialized divers," according to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City Beach, Fla. The military will spend $50 million acquiring AUVs in the next five years, according to one estimate.
AUV mine clearing is not only safer, according to proponents; it's about 20 times faster.
Case in point: an AUV mine-clearing operation in Iraq allowed the U.S. Navy to clear nearly a square mile of harbor in 16 hours--something that would have taken divers 21 days working without the technology, the Navy told the Associated Press.
No easy task: "The closer in you get to any port or harbor, the greater amount of clutter you will encounter--tires, rocks, coral reefs," a Navy spokesman told the AP. "To screen out all that clutter is a huge job and it takes some very, very technologically advanced sensors."
Still, advances in autonomous vehicles are moving so fast, there's no way the Transphibian class will remain state-of-the-art for long. For instance, it uses flexible fins for both propulsion and control, and hybrid gliders for thrust, completely bypassing exposed props. These innovations allow it to clamber over debris and operate in rough water, according to the manufacturer.
However the Navy is spreading its bets by funding another project at MIT's Bio-Instrumentation Systems Laboratory. Scientists there hope to leapfrog other AUVs and produce one "that can hover, turn, store energy and do all the things a fish does." It does this by mimicking the fin action of the bluegill sunfish, according to the university. The scientists have reportedly already successfully tested a fin made from a thin, flexible, cutting-edge, conductive polymer that replicates the fin motions that propel the sunfish.
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