[...Much ado about the Freedom Ship snipped...]
>James,
>Are you aware of any use of composites in the construction of large
>ships? AFAIK, large hull construction still relies on steel and some
>aluminum. I imagine that carbon-carbon sturcutral components and woven
>kevlar hull meterial would be a high tech version of the old flexible
>hulls of yore, like the eskimo kayak and St. Bernard's boat (that one
>that was on the cover of Nat. Geographic 15 or so years ago). Using
>multiple such hulls supporting a stabilized platform would seem to me to
>be an optimum solution.
I do not know what the state of naval engineering is these days. As I
stated, my knowledge of naval engineering is tangential at best. I imagine
that fiber composites would have some real advantages in this case, like
the case you stated above, but there are numerous issues regarding the use
of such materials that I know nothing about. There may be some
environmental, damage propagation, and repair/maintenance issues that may
make it impractical to use fiber composites.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com