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- Dec 31, 1969
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The US Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent application from Boeing for a drone that can turn into a submarine on the fly.
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Two reasons:looks cool but it seems odd that it would need to detach it's wings upon entering the water. It would be even more cool if it could somehow take off again.
This seems almost more like the design of a guided cruise missile (one time use, so things like shedding fins wouldn't matter), though I guess these days anything is a "Drone".
Two reasons:
1. wings add lift, completely negating its ability to dive in the water. The bernoulli effect will still work underwater.
2. The wings themselves add negligible drag in the air, but the increased surface area under water will increase drag and make the thing slower than a snail.
Tearing away and leaving the symmetrical wing root for directional stability underwater is a simple compromise.