SPEEDY WATER SLEDS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22393, 14 April 1936, Page 11

SPEEDY WATER SLEDS

USE BY ITALIAN FLEET SYDNEY ENGINEER'S CLAIM The new water sleds used by the Italian Red Sea Fleet, which carry two torpedoes and an anti-aircraft gun, and attain a speed of from 60 to 80 knots, have been described in recent cablegrams. Mr. H. E. Ross, a Sydney architeot and consulting engineer, Rtated last week that he was the inventor of this type of craft, for which he took out patents in 1905. The first vessel to bo built was tested on the waters of Lane Cove, Sydney, secretly and at night, before world patent rights were sought. The patent rights expired in 1922. "I am sure," said Mr. Ross, "that, had any of us who were associated with the invention realised that our novel sea craft would eventually come into the picture 30 years later as an instrument of war, we would have been inclined to destroy the plans and send the initial idea into oblivion." Mr. Ross said the vessel had almost no displacement wavo at any speed. It had parallel sides, immediately under which were two keels, the object of the design being to lift tho vessel out of the water at the lowest speeds. The first sea sled built had a 14 horsepower engine, and in spite of this low power achieved the remarkable speed of 19.2 miles an hour, so that he considered that there was no reason why a speed of 80 miles an hour should not be achieved by the Italian craft. A mere speedboat built on the same principle could develop a speed of 100 miles an hour.