Cables and parachutes for submariners
The way out was obvious: you need to make some means by which the submariner can control the speed of the ascent. The simplest means of such a lift is a simple buippe cable with marks. In such a case, the submariner in the hydro-overalls leaves the boat, for example, through a torpedo tube and finds a buirep of a pre-released buoy. If you have special breathing mixes in this way, you can rise from the depths to 100-120 meters.
The exit method on buirep is simple and effective, it is applied still. But he has one significant drawback. The accident of the submarine and the subsequent imprisonment under water are a strong stress for a person. The subsequent rescue operation also does not add calm. As a result, a nervous divers can forget about the instructions and go all the way up to the rescue surface. And get a barotrauma, perhaps even fatal. The idea is that divers of the rescue service should insure a rising submariner. But not always rescuers can make it in time.
There was a demand for a new rescue tool that automatically monitors the speed of recovery. Various ideas and designs were proposed in our country and abroad. For example, back in the fifties in the United States invented a special winch with a barometric regulator. The implication was that the submariner leaves the boat, fastens the end of the cable on its outer surface and begins to swim upwards. The winch, fastened on his belt, unwinds the cable at the required speed for a given depth and, smoothly emerging, the person simultaneously undergoes recompression. However, this tool was never adopted. The fact is that the new American submarines had almost no protruding elements on which a carbine with a cable could be fastened, and the submarin’s “walking” on the surface of the submarine in search of a suitable place for the carbine, to put it mildly, confused the military. Over time, the idea came about to completely abandon any cables connecting the boat and the man. There were also many ideas in this direction, but only one was destined to reach practical implementation.
In the 60-ies of the last century, the ISP-60 submariner isolation kit was adopted. Hydro-overalls and an insulating breathing apparatus allowed the development of new methods of lifting to the surface to begin, in addition to the buipup exit. This is how the free ascent method appeared. It allows you to evacuate from depths from 50 to 250 meters when exiting with the flooding of the compartment and locking in the rescue hatch, respectively. Studies on the optimal ascent rate showed that a submariner with free ascent from a depth of about 50 meters should move no faster than one meter per second, and after ascent it should be sent to the pressure chamber for recompression as quickly as possible. For ascent from greater depths, the recommended ascent rate was less. The question arose: how to provide it? The solution found the most original: once you need to reduce the speed of approaching the surface of the water, then why not take as a basis a means of reducing the speed of approaching the surface of the earth - a parachute? As a result, the parachute system PP-2 was created.
The essence of the parachute system is as follows: with free ascent, the submariner's overalls filled with the gas mixture have positive buoyancy and pull the person upwards to the surface. Submariner, coming out of the boat, released a parachute of a small area. Due to the high water pressure at a greater depth, it effectively slows the person up to the desired speed. Upon reaching a depth of 60 to 80 meters, the automatic ascent machine that is part of the PP-2 system clears the knapsack of the main parachute. He opens up and continues to slow the climb, not allowing the person to move upward too quickly. Theoretically, the parachute system allows you to rise from the depths to two hundred meters, but there is no information about the practical confirmation of these figures in the public domain. Similarly, the details of the PP-2 tests, as well as information on the application of the system in practice, have not yet been published.
According to the instructions, ascent to the surface using parachute systems is almost the same as other methods of free ascent. The only difference is in permissible depths - free ascent without PP-2 is allowed from depths to 140 meters. It should also be noted another feature of the rescue equipment submariner (SSP), which includes the parachute system. The kit, which has PP-2, is called SSP in the configuration number 1. Component number 2, in turn, has no parachute system. The rest of the kits are identical. SSP №1 relies only on those submarines that have a rescue hatch with an air supply unit. The second version of the kit, respectively, is designed for other submarines. However, the SSP with PP-2 does not have a tight binding to the rescue hatch. If necessary, the exit with a parachute can be carried out through a torpedo tube or felling, it all depends on the conditions in which the divers are located.
It is noteworthy that underwater parachutes were mass-produced only in our country. For example, in the United States, the fate of such a development ended in trials. For some reason, military officials left an American-style parachute system historical curiosity and object of jokes. The English term underwater parachute, in turn, “passed by inheritance” to special air bags used to lift cargo under water using the force of Archimedes.
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