Triple Hulled Submarine Query

[Cobra]

Hey Guys, Just had a Question Pop into my Head:Has Anyone tried to Combine 3 Submarine hulls,from like a WW2 Gato,or German U-Boat or a More Modern Submarine to Create a kind of 'Super Sub'? Seeing how some here had Combined 3 of like the Horten Flying Wings into a Nightfighter and Such,i Thought i'd ask. What Say You? Thanks for looking. Dan

[Hobbes]

The Typhoon class have two pressure hulls side by side, with a smaller one on top. The Dolfijn class have a similar arrangement, but with the largest of the three on top. Both have their pressure hulls inside one outer envelope, though.  

Dolfijn:

[Weaver]

Always rather liked that arrangement on the Dolfijns (gives you a good diving depth and preserves the rear TT capability), although I understand it created some maintenance difficulties in such a small space. That might be alleviated by scaling it up though...

Going the other way, it would work well for a limited endurance coastal sub, which had two no-access "pods" under the main pressure hull with propulsion at the rear of them, batteries in the middle and muzzle-loading TTs at the front. You cut down on the engineering crew, and if one propulsion system fails, you limp back to base on the other one rather than trying to fix it at sea.

[Doc Yo]

 A tri-hulled sub would be aestheticly interesting but I doubt you'd see much of a real world prescence for the
concept. While it would be good for internal volume, it would probably greatly increase the underwater drag
and noise. Might do for a commercial ship, but not a warship. The qualities that make tri-hull surface ship a
worthwhile proposistion tend to vanish in a sub...



(In character )

  I think my feckless little brother uses a tri-hull sub in his "Sekrit Yo Navy", the Gruesome Tench if I
remember rightly...