High Speed Marine Craft

What is it about?

This book is about the history and the technology of very high speed marine craft useful for both commercial and naval use. Written by one of the early pioneers, it specifically explores in detail the developments by the US Navy to design a large ship capable of conducting military missions on the high seas at speeds approaching 100 knots --- some 3 to 4 times faster than current naval ships. The book contains personal anecdotes from key engineers and entrepreneurs in the high speed marine craft community. The book provides the theory and substantiated data on dynamic lift craft that have been designed, built and operated by several nations. It describes the various types of craft that provide speeds from 50 to 250 knots depending on the technology used. The book has twelve stand-alone chapters that describe the history of key developments; technical descriptions of successful craft; economic considerations; technical design tools, and finally a chapter on "lessons learned" and new avenues to explore to achieve practical designs for high speed at sea.

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Why is it important?

Much of the key information had been previously lost due to passage of time, closing of government laboratories that were involved in the development, and disbandment of private companies that had designed and built the successful craft. That information has been resurrected and detailed in the book to help historians, researchers and craft designers and to provide a valuable data base for the design of high speed marine craft.

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