Seem like SIA a branch of Chinese Academy has been working on this glider concept for a long time since 2003 The latest test show it can withstand typhoon and other difficult sea condition. And establish new record of endurance and longest mileage
They are not the only one working on this glider as my previous post show.There is naval research outfit and Tianjin university All of them reported good result .Guess they are soon to be deployed or maybe even already deployed.From Henri K blog
Teams from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIA)
Institute of Science and Technology (SIA ) have recovered their submarine glider "Sea Wing 1000" from the northern South China Sea last Thursday.
With 91 days of uninterrupted operation, the Chinese autonomous and non-propelled seagoing drone beats not only the new record of the country in terms of navigation time but also in distance and quantity of data collected with 1,884 km traveled and 488 sub- marines scanned.
The submarine glider had been
, which were then networked by Chinese scientists in an area of 135 × 75 nautical miles (250 × 139 km) during a month to observe the formation of the submarine vortices, before continuing alone its route.
During the missions, the drone also resisted the difficult maritime conditions, because of the five typhoons that fell successively in the region.
The SIA Institute Sea Wing 1000 underwater glider
According to
, the submarine glider "Sea Wing" has a hydraulic tank functioning like the swim bladder of a fish. The change in the volume of this tank allows the drone to slowly advance under water in a W-shaped movement, thanks to the variation of the buoyancy.
Despite its low speed, this mode of operation consumes little energy and therefore ensures a relatively long autonomy. Compared to other propelled gear, a submarine glider also has advantages such as the low cost of construction and maintenance.
The SIA Institute started the development of underwater gliders in 2003. The first industrial prototype was assembled in 2008 and carried out its test at sea a year later.
To address the different operational needs, SIA engineers have developed three versions of submarine gliders that can reach 300, 1,000 and 7,000 meters deep. The first dive under 1,000 meters of depth was carried out in May 2014.
The "Sea Wing 7000" model also broke the record of depth reached by this type of craft,
during its last outings month of March this year.
Several entities in China have also developed their own submarine gliders, such as the Hai Xiang (海翔, Glider of the Sea) designed by the 702 Institute of the Naval Group CSIC, or the Hai Yan (海燕, Sea Swallow ) of the University of Tianjin.
Henri K.