Building the french suffren sna

[RCSubGuy]

I can’t say as I’ve ever run an X Tail. Can you tell a big difference between this and a regular vertical and horizontal set up?

X-tails are 1.4x more effective than traditional cruciform rudders. HUGE difference in control.

[Albacore 569]

Suffren still progressing well. Getting ready to paint.

Mean time getting long lead time items for the Rubis class SSN (SNA) either will be Perle or Améthyste

STL files in 1/64 (same scale as Suffren) ready.

Keith Benders prop arriving next week.




Suffren

[Subculture]

Very unusual rudder arrangement on that boat, the upper rudder looks like it has almost twice the moveable area of the lower rudder. Wonder if that’s to offset sail induced roll?

[Albacore 569]

The Rudders are different top and bottom it looks. There will be an offset in axis between the vertical and horizontal planes. The upper rudder axis will be a bit offset to the forward half bites into the stream so it's more a balanced rudder in function.

The subs in the rubis class all had major upgrades, the Amythyste rebuilds on the first 4 of 6 boats, then another major upgrade in the early 2000's. All to make them more effective and considerably quieter. They are considered a bit noisy in the quieter end of things. But the Rubis managed to successfully pass through the Ticonderoga's and La subs and Arleigh Burkes screens to sink a number of times the USS Abraham Lincoln in wargames.

Now the Suffrens are taking over. The Suffren's are twice the size, and half the crew, vastly quieter and you tube 'the subbrief' suggests one of the best sonars and quieting in the world now. French engineering in their ships and submarines tend to get it right.

The Rubis class aren't the hottest subs out there, but they are very important in the French learning curve on their submarines. I think the reason why the Suffren design took way so long (I think 15 years?) was to learn and catch up technologically learning from the Rubis class. The Rubises to me are small crowded as sub crowding goes slower plumper Skipjacks.

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