Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-04-14
TALKING OF BUSINESS
New Vessel Is Key to U.S.. Hopes
For Ocean, Going HydrofoiI Ships
BY TRUMAN r. TEMPLE
Star Staff Writer

ot0A 0baAA WHICH
Two months from now a
Strengthening 80-ton vessel
with wing-like appendages will
slide down the ways at Beth
page, Long Island, dripping
from a champagne christening.
On this 70-passenger ship
and a number of other exper-
imentS the United States Mari
time Administration is betting
that Stepped-up research may
keep America out front in
world shipping.
The new ship is a hydrofoil.
BY means Of fins extending
beneath the hull, such craft
rise a few feet above the water
and skim along at high speed,
freed from the normal drag of
the hull in water.
The vessel is being made by
Grammar Aircraft Engineer
ing Corp, an appropriate
choice since the foils in such
ships act in the water some
what as wings of an airplane
provide lift in the air. General
Electric Co. is providing its
l 900 horsepower T-58 gas tur-
bine engine for low speeds with
foils retracted, and a $4,000
horsepower gas turbine engine
for above-water cruising, turn
ing conventional propeller.
10 M.P.H. Speed
The HIS (for Hydrofoil Ship
DeniSon, as it's to be named,
will zip along at about 10 miles
an hour. The fastest CONNER
cial ship afloat today, the SIS
United States, does. about 40
miles an hour.
The DeniSon is not the first
hydrofoil. The Flying Fish," a
60-passenger vessel designed by
Supramar, Inc, of Switzerland
has been shutting between
Bellingham, Wash. and Vic
toria, B. c., since February. 1t
charges SO for the 100-mile
round trip, and makes the tour
in half the time of conven-
tional ferries.
Furthermore, hydrofoils have
been around ever since World
War II when the Germans were
using them as patrol boats.
Supramar has them in Sched-
uled passenger service on eight
routes in Europe and one in
South America. Several ply
coastal routes in the Mediter-
ranean to Italian and Greek
islands.
Plan Ocean Routes
But the Maritime Admins
tration plans to put hydrofoils |
to a more severe test. 1t wants
them to stand up in open seas,
not just in protected coastal
routes. The Denison is built
for rugged duty. After six
months of tests in open At
lantic waters. it will be con-
verified to hard commercial
service for a couple of years
and then converted to even
faster speeds, between 80 and
lis miles an hour, according |
to Richard P. Goodwin, acting |
chief in Maritime's office of
research and development.
Why should Uncle Sam help
back a Sc million futuristic
craft like this that can't carry
much more cargo than a World |
War II PIT boat?
The answer Is that it's part |
OF a broad experimental ap-
proach to commercial shipping.
Right now the Stanford Re
search Institute is studying
commercial possibilities of a
5O0-ton hydrofoil. The first
generation" of such vessels
might operate at a profit, Off
Gals think, in such places as
the Great Lakes. along rivers
and among the Hawaiian |
Islands.
Speed is Cost Key
The Maritime Administra-
ton is bothered by lack of
speed of conventional ships.
With rising costs Of labor (sea-
men in United States vessels
are paid three to four times
the wages of labor in foreign |
ships, faster ships with their |
shorter time per trip offer one
way to cut costs.
After the lessons of the
Korean emergency and block
obsolescence" of the 10-knot
World War II Liberty ships,
the Maritime Administered in,n