Le Triomphant (S616) — French Ballistic Missile Submarine Model, 36 in
Le Triomphant (S616) — French Ballistic Missile Submarine Model, 36 in
How big is it?
Length about 91 cm / 36.0 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 36 in / 91 cm
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Battle Ship Models
- Item no.
- CM561
The larger edition of France's strategic missile submarine, at 36 inches.
Specification
- 36 inches
- Handcrafted hull with fin and control surface detail
- Missile compartment casing, hydroplanes, rudder and pump-jet
- Mounted on a display base with nameplate
- Fully assembled
The pump-jet
Look at the stern. Le Triomphant was the first French submarine with a pump-jet propulsor instead of an open propeller — a shrouded rotor inside a duct.
The reason is cavitation. An open propeller blade generates low-pressure regions at the tips, water boils into bubbles, and the bubbles collapse with a sound that carries for miles. A ducted pump-jet raises the pressure across the rotor and suppresses that, which is why it is now standard on Western strategic submarines.
A quiet submarine is a surviving submarine, and for a boat whose entire purpose is to be un-findable, this single detail matters more than anything else on the hull.