Post #3871083

- The detail about the magnetohydrodynamic drive the Red October employees is still sparse in the novel, but gives much more detail (and quite different detail) to the movie. What's interesting is that they seem to be describing effectively different drive systems. In the book it's effectively an impeller in tubes, and the limiting factor for its performance is the amount of water gets in. - A boat with a true magnetohydrodynamic drive got built by Japan in the early '90s - the Yamato-1. The weight of its electromagnets was its major limitation in how fast the boat could go. (Pictured: the stern of the Yamato-1's MHD drive)