3 ms·

Nitpick: they certainly weren't 400 meters long as claimed in the article. Wikipedia claims 81.4m which seems more reasonable. Edit: doh, 400m depth, not size

• mrbill 9y ago
  I thought perhaps 400m was their max depth but Wikipedia says 350.
  • knute 9y ago
    "Max depth" is kind of a nebulous concept though. There's the "test depth" which is as deep as they're willing to test the submarine. There's the maximum operational depth, which is some lesser depth that keeps a safety margin over the test depth. Then there's the "crush depth", which is the depth at which the submarine will actually fail, and is hopefully substantially deeper than the test depth.
    • srean 9y ago
      .. and along those lines cannot recommend https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Boot enough
      • hermitdev 9y ago
        Been a while since I've watched "Das Boot", but IIRC, there's a scene in the movie where, initially on the surface, they have a taught string strung across the sub. Then, as they dive, deeper and deeper, the taught string relaxes giving a rather frightening visual insight into how much the hull of the boat is compressing.
• dnhz 9y ago
  > At 41 knots and 400 meters the ALFA Class pushed the boundaries of both speed and operating depth. 400 m is a claim on operating depth, not length.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]