That was one of the movies that got me interested in acoustics, fluid dynamics and ultimately nonlinear dynamics in general in undergrad.
Given Clancy’s fondness for Cold War tech, I’m guessing he partially based the caterpillar drive off real world attempts at supercavitation vehicles.
Take this next one with a grain of salt. Supercavitation submarines capable of exceeding the speed of sound waves (whether as measured in air or water) are kind of like controlled break-even fusion, theoretically possible but prohibitively expensive to develop…
[Mostly posting all this for general consumption. Given that you regularly post similar candy, I’d be unsurprised if you know more about cavitation tech than I do. ]
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