M bo batan

Design 1740 Double Eagle

Here's an interesting design shrouded in secrecy. From the files I can see the client is listed as the "sponsor" but that only leads me to believe it was the U.S. Navy. The design brief was for a 79' high speed "crew" boat utilizing twin diesel engines for cruise speed and twin gas turbines turning super cavitating props for boost speed of over 50 knots in sea state 3.


The boat was built by General Dynamics of aluminum. The year was 1966, pretty early for a gas turbine powered boat and I would not be surprised if it was not the earliest.

Here's a construction sequence.


Here's the boat at speed. The boat achieved 57 knots during sea trials.



A detail shot of the bridge.



Here's a shot of the out drives. The outboard drives are very early Schottel drives. We're using Schottel drives on a boat we are building now. You can see the super cavitating props on the inner shafts.