PANEL DISCUSSION-PLANING CRAFT 



Daniel Savitsky, Panel Chairman '. 

 Stevens Institute of Technology 

 Hoboken, New Jersey 



INTRODUCTION 



The currently increasing number of, and utilization of, planing craft in both 

 naval and commercial applications has brought into sharp focus the relative 

 dearth of small-boat hydrodynamic technology available to the naval architect. 

 For the most part, the planing-boat designer has borrowed from the scientific 

 literature on water-based aircraft and displacement ships, seasoned this with 

 his own ingenuity, and produced a variety of successful and unsuccessful hull 

 forms. The existing literature has now been extracted to exhaustion, making it 

 essential to develop a program of hydrodynamic research tailored to the unique 

 problems of small high-speed craft. Almost every phase of planing-craft tech- 

 nology is requiring of research — i.e., hull hydrodynamics, propulsion, seakeep- 

 ing, maneuverability and stability, shallow-water water effects, structural loads, 

 and model-full-scale correlation, to name just a few. Many of these important 

 problems have not been considered in past research programs. Fortunately, it 

 now appears that an integrated program of small-boat research is being con- 

 sidered by the U.S. Navy. If so, it is eagerly awaited by the design community. 

 It is hoped that the present panel discussion (which reports the first instance of 

 separate consideration of planing craft in all seven Symposia on Naval Hydro- 

 dynamics) represents the start of a continuing series of technical seminars con- 

 cerned with the varied hydrodynamics of planing craft. 



The deliberations of the panel were well attended, and some fifteen formal 

 contributions were presented. This large number of prepared statements pre- 

 cluded the possibility of arranging for general informal discussions on planing 

 hulls and necessitated the presentation of the prepared material followed by dis- 

 cussions from the attendees. The material presented was grouped into the follow- 

 ing three categories: 



1. Innovations in Planing- Craft Design; 



2. Model Test Procedures for Planing Hulls 



3. Recent Test Results for Planing Hulls 



The specific formal contributions to each of these categories, along with the 

 associated discussions, are discussed below. 



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