- Nautile
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Career France Name: Nautile In service: 1984 General characteristics Type: Deep-submergence vehicle Length: 8.0 m (26.2 ft) Beam: 2.7 m (8.9 ft) Draft: 3.81 m (12.5 ft) Installed power: electric motor Speed: 1.5kn Range: 7.5km Endurance: 120h Test depth: 6,000 m (20,000 ft) Complement: 3 The Nautile is a manned submersible owned by Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Commissioned in 1984, the submersible can be operated at depths of up to 6 km (3.7 mi).
The Nautile is a miniature submarine, based on the bathyscaphe design, and capable of housing just three people. It has a length of 8 m, still imaging cameras, two colour video cameras, and a number of flood lights. It is fitted with two robotic arms to allow remote manipulation. The nautile can stay under water for up to eight hours at a time.
The vessel has been used to examine the wreck of the RMS Titanic and in the search for the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the ill-fated Air France Flight 447[1]
See also
Media related to Bathyscaphe Nautile at Wikimedia Commons
External links and references
- Nautile — specification from Ifremer website
- Nautile: miniature submarine — BBC news article
- Submarine to examine sunken oil tanker — New Scientist article
Categories:- Deep diving submarines
- Unique submarines
- Bathyscaphes
- Submarine stubs
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