The ice hampers cargo transportation in almost every part of the world. In North America this is a common problem on the Great Lakes, on the St. Lawrence River and along the Canadian coast.

An even greater problem during the winter is sailing the seas around the Arctic and Antarctic. The average thickness of ice in this area ranges from two to three meters.

The first icebreaker ships

After the appearance of the first steel steamships, the situation changed. A ship that was strong enough could break through the thinner ice. However, the ability of such ships to break ice was still limited, though some of them had specially reinforced hulls for that purpose.

The solution came when the icebreakers started to build. Apparently the first icebreaker in the world was City Ice Boat I, which was built in 1837 in the United States.

In Europe, in 1871, in Hamburg (Germany), a icebreaker Eisbrecher was built. Experience has soon shown which ships are best off against ice, and at the beginning of the 20th century they already knew what icebreakers were supposed to be.

What is the icebreaker?

The steel plate on the bow of the ship can be over three centimeters thick – and in icebergs in polar seas it is even five centimeters, and the hull itself beside the regular has a special rib that serves as an additional boost.

For a ship that goes off ice it is extremely important how his body is shaped. Namely, the toughest task is often not to break ice, but to suppress fragmented pieces. Many icebreakers have a pretty shallow and rounded bow, which reminds you of a spoon. The icebreaker ship actually break ice with masses, and the ice pieces are pushed side or under.

Modern icebreakers are powered by a diesel-electric drive, and the power of their propulsion units corresponds to the power of medium-sized tankers.

When the ship is stuck in the ice, it swing left to right and breaks the ice around it. The swinging of the ship is achieved by a special system for the alternating tilt of the skid steerer to the higher water volume alternately shifted from the tanks to one in the tanks on the other side of the ship.

Multipurpose icebreakers are built to break ice during the winter, and when the ice is melted, they are also used for jobs such as laying cables, for exploration purposes or for supplying remote oil platforms.

Top 5 Biggest Ice Breaker Ships

4 facts about icebreaker ships

– The first icebreaker was City Ice Boat I built in 1837
– Soviet / Russian ship named Lenjin built in 1957 was a first nuclear-powered icebreaker
– The Russian nuclear icebreaker Arctic, built in 2016, is the largest icebreaker in the world. Its length is 173 meters and its width is 34 meters
– The largest users of icebreakers are Finland, Sweden, USA and Russia

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Longest railway in the world
The length of the railway is exactly 9288.2 kilometers and is the longest railway in the world. It passes through eight time zones and clocks in the train are adjusted at Moscow time. Since 2002 it has been fully electrified.

24 years construction
The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891 and was completed in 1916. Over the decades has fascinated many generations that consider it as special means of transport with a new perspective on travel.

Bridge and tunnel of two kilometers
The longest bridge on the Trans Siberian Railway is long 2612 meters, and the longest tunnel on the route is long as much as two kilometers.

62,000 workers
The construction of the railway was divided into seven sections. On the constructing the railway were working soldiers and prisoners, but also the workers who came from other parts of the country – a total of 62,000. Info about Trans Siberian Express

87 cities and towns and 16 big rivers

Trans-Siberian Railway passes through 87 cities and towns, and some of them are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Vladivostok … You cross the 16 big rivers like Volga, Ova, Ural, Oka, Amur and other …

153 hours and 49 minutes
The journey from Moscow to Vladivostok takes exactly 153 hours and 49 minutes, and the train is usually not delayed or delayed minimum, an hour or two. At the station in Moscow stands an obelisk that marks the prime, and in Vladivostok, the same, which means the 9288th kilometer.

Speed up to 100 kmh / 60 mph
In recent years in the railroad has invested about 11 billion dollars to help speed of freight trains increased to 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph), which would shorten the transportation of cargo by fifteen to seven days.

Golden Eagle train
Golden Eagle is a train on the route from Moscow to Vladivostok, and it’s a train that leaves no one indifferent. Every traveler has, in addition to a coupe, a separate bathroom. In the train is at any moment available doctor.

Icebreaker
One of the biggest obstacles in the construction of railways was Lake Baikal, 60 km east of Irkutsk. Lake Baikal is 640 km long and over 1,600 meters deep. The railway is ended on both sides of the lake and a special icebreaker was purchased from England to connect the railway until the part of railway is complete near the south shore of the lake.

750,000 employees in 1905
By 1905 on the Russian Railways was about 1,500 locomotives and 30,000 wagons and on the rail is employed around 750,000 people, who were receiving around 50% higher salary than the average.

30% of Russian exports
About 30% of Russian exports are transported via this railway. After the collapse of the USSR and the opening of borders of Russia, rail has become popular for foreign tourists, but also for the Russians. Today, Trans-Siberian railway transports about 20,000 containers per year in Europe, including 8,300 containers from Japan.

Church wagon
During the Russian Empire, to 1917, there was a wagon of the Russian Orthodox Church, who served in areas where residents have not yet had built a church. After the October Revolution and during communism train was removed and since April 2005, with the agreement of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Railways, the train was again part of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

54 beds in one wagon
The famous Russian third class trains – Plackartni, has 54 beds upstairs in a large wagon, and this is exactly the right way for a road trip in Russia, because with so many people in one place can not be bored.

…to gulag…
From the 1930s until the 1950s transport of prisoners in gulagese performed exclusively by rail in special wagons that are easily connected to regular passenger trains, so that almost every train that was traveling from Moscow with the Trans-Siberian Railway or on the North had at the end of the composition just one such wagon with an armed escort of the KGB.

Faberge egg
In 1900 Russian jeweler Peter Carl Faberge made, for the royal family Romanov, Faberge egg with a motif of Trans-Siberian railway, called the Trans-Siberian Railway Egg.

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Unfortunately, supersonic airplanes are not used today. They were a symbol of the 20th century which is, at least for now, according to this criterion was more advanced than the 21st century. However, in all probability, this is only a temporary condition and “supersonic” future come soon.

The fastest airliner in the world (was) a famous Franco-British aircraft Concorde, which is due to unprofitability in 2003 officially withdrawn from use.

Concorde is regarded as the most famous supersonic airliner in the world but it is not, as many think, the only, or even the first of its kind to be used for the purposes of civil air traffic. In fact, only three months before the European Concorde in the air took off a Russian supersonic airplane Tupolev Tu-144, it was in December 1968. The Americans also had their “ace in the hole,” supersonic plane “Boeing 2707” but they gave up on “supersonic race” and their plane never took off.

Airplane Concorde is a result of cooperation between the French company Aérospatiale and British BAC. The first plane was officially flew 02 March 1969 from the airport in Toulouse and in commercial traffic has officially entered on 21 January 1976. It is produced only 16 planes (+ 4 prototypes).

Read also article How is a Plane Constructed

When Did Concorde Crash

The cause of the demise of Concorde and supersonic commercial flight in general was unprofitability, but “the straw that broke the camel” or reason for the withdrawal of supersonic planes was the plane crash in which an Air France Concorde caught fire and crashed in 2000 during takeoff from Paris.

This “spectacular” plane crash had an incredible public response which resulted in an even greater reduction of interest in too expensive “supersonic” flights that were exclusively privilege of the rich.

The result of the disaster was the 113 victims (of which 4 on the land). Airplane was officially withdrawn from traffic three years later on 24 October 2003, and the last flight was on 26 November of the same year.

Technical-technological perfection of this plane is in the fact that it was twice faster than sound. It was flying at a speed of Mach 2.04 (about 2170 km / h) where with the announcement a few minutes earlier, broke the sound barrier. Distance between London and New York it could pass for only 3.5 hours compared to 7 hours as the flight with ordinary subsonic passenger aircraft.

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Civil aviation was developed after World War II. During the twenties of the 20th century, travelers often fly with postal planes, sometimes with the postal bags in the wing. In the late thirties flying has become much more comfortable way to travel. The first international passenger flights from London to Paris, began in 1919. The first passenger planes were often refurbished bombers from World War II.

The first jet plane “Heinkel He-178” took off in 1939. But the main development of jets came after Second World War. The first jet airliner “The heavy land comet” was put into service in 1952. Today, on almost all long-distance flight jet airplanes.

Most of the planes have a central part of which is called fuselage with wings. Smaller wings, horizontal stabilizers and vertical stabilizer, tail, are located on the rear of the fuselage. Straight wings are best for transporting massive loads at low speeds, while the faster drive used the wings angled back. Some military jets, as “Tornado”, have movable wings, which can additionally be moved at high speed in reverse.

Some planes do not have smaller wings as horizontal stabilizers. Instead, wings create a triangle which is called delta. This model of wings was applied on “Concorde”. Delta wings are good for high-speed but at low speeds does not behave well. For several types of aircraft wings are set back and the horizontal stabilizers are located at the front.

The planes usually have a frame made of light alloy such as duralumin. They are covered with panels of lightweight metals that make up the shell and fuselage very strong, such as tube. The wings are designed in a similar way. Before this technique was developed, twenties of the last century, airplanes had wooden or metal frame covered with canvas or fixed with wire.

Majority of modern airplanes used jet engines of various types. Even when using a propeller, power can come from turbo-propellor engines. Until the fifties, most airplanes had propellers driven by conventional motors. Some small planes have also today. These engines operate on the same principle as the engines of cars.

Inside the aircraft most is space for passengers which includes seats. Behind this section are placed rear toilets and rear kitchen. In front of the plane is located cockpit in which the pilot and co-pilot’s seat and control aircraft…

Few facts: Concorde was the first supersonic (faster than sound) airliner, today’s planes fly at half the speed than the Concorde. The fast is that one Jumbo Jet using the same amount of fuel transports four times more passengers than the Concorde. Here you can check what caused the Demise of Concorde

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ThrustSSC vehicle is a jet-powered. It has two turbojets intended for combat aircraft. These engines produced by Rolls-Royce for the British version of the fighter F-4 Phantom II. Jet engines together provide approximately 110,000 horsepower.

ThrustSSC vehicle reached a speed of up to 1,227.986 kilometers per hour and so set current world record.

The vehicle is operated by the British Royal Air Force pilot (RAF) Andy Green, who has the rank of warrant officer, “Wing Commander.”

ThrustSSC was actually a British project, led by the Scottish entrepreneur Richard Noble. He previously developed jet vehicles Thrust1 and Thrust2.

Check more on http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc.html

Mention that the Thrust2 held the world speed record from 1983 to 1997 year. Today, the British developed even faster car – Bloodhound SSC – which should reach a speed of up to 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 kilometers per hour).

Bloodhound SSC will be powered by a jet engine from the Eurofighter fighter jet, rocket engine and one extra V8 Formula 1 engine.

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Among the new designs in group I, the lightest weight class, there were two 2.5 -ton 6×6 vehicles. When they were subsequently rolled out of the shops of the Hoiabird Quartermaster’s Depot in 1932, one, W3228, was powered by a Duesenberg J engine, while the other, W3229, was powered by a Lycoming. In time, a Franklin air-cooled V12 was also trialled in one of the vehicles.

It is worth noting that during this time, a certain AW Herrington was employed by the Motor Transport Division of the Quartermaster Corps. While the Standard Fleet did not enter mass production, the vehicles created were instrumental in defining future generations of US Army tactical vehicles. The Standard Fleet had been created with the purpose of crafting vehicles built to wholly military specifications using standardised components, as opposed to the previous process of buying commercial vehicles from a variety of manufacturers – vehicles that might have closely fitted military needs, but were rarely exactly what the US Army wanted. Ultimately however, Congress and the Comptroller General of the United States decreed that the Army could not produce its own vehicles as it had with the Standard Fleet, but rather had to rely on private enterprise for its future needs.

Although those with dual rear wheels faired better, the off-road shortcomings of two-axle vehicles, even 4x4s, were obvious. Accordingly, consideration was given to 6×6 trucks, and in 1933 the Army procured a commercial 2.5-ton 6×6. Designated the TL29-6, this truck was manufactured by the Indianapolis-based Marmon-Herrington Company, which had AW Herrington, no longer in the service of the Army, as one of its principals.

The TL29-6 was not without competition, as Corbitt offered the Army its 168-FD8.

While neither design was an outright failure, neither offered the Army what it wanted at the price it wanted to pay. At this point in time, powered front axles were still in their infancy, and vehicles so equipped were limited-production, expensive, specialist machines. However, the concept had piqued the interest of the GMC Division of automotive titan General Motors.

GMC had its origins in the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company and the Reliance Motor Company, both Detroit-based independent truck manufacturers. W C Durant, who began assembling the corporate behemoth that would become General Motors, purchased Reliance in 1908, and followed that with the purchase of Rapid in 1909. Reliance and Rapid combined to form the General Motors Truck Company, and the GMC logo first appeared in 1911.

In Chicago, an empire was also being built by John D Hertz – later of rental car fame – who owned Yellow Cab. In November 1922 he purchased the Lake Shore Motor Bus Company, which included the American Motor Bus Manufacturing Company. The initial function of the firm was to provide buses for the Chicago Motor Bus Company, also controlled by Hertz, but it was soon selling motor coaches to other operators.

On 17 April 1923, the American Motor Bus Manufacturing Company was sold to the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company, which promptly reorganised as the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company.

The business prospered, with well over 2000 units being delivered between August 1923 and July 1925, about half going to Hertz-controlled firms. The company’s success was noted by Alfred P Sloan, chairman of General Motors, and, on 8 July 1925, a merger of General Motors with Yellow Coach Manufacturing was announced. General Motors would get 60% of the new holding company, Yellow Truck and Coach Company, in exchange for the assets of General Motors Truck Company (GMC) and the obscure GM subsidiary of Northway Motor and Manufacturing Company.

On 26 August 1925, the deal was consummated and, in March 1927, the new firm acquired a 160-acre tract of land near Pontiac, Michigan, for the construction of a new assembly plant.

Trucks began leaving the assembly line on 5 January 1928. With 26 acres under cover, it was at the time the world’s largest truck plant.

It was from this formidable position that General Motors entered into the US Army 6×6 fray in response to a 1937 invitation to bid. Its purpose-built model 4929 was a stylish 1.5-ton truck featuring an Oldsmobile 230 engine mated to a Chevrolet four-speed transmission, powering Timken axles through a Wisconsin T32 transfer case. The front-end sheet metal was Chevrolet pattern, and the truck chassis was a modified Yellow commercial unit. Utilising such readily available components both lowered unit cost and speeded up production. In total, 229 were built against contract 398-QM-6270 valued at $539,534, and the last was delivered on the final day of May 1938.

Also in 1938, GMC’s efforts to develop an engine for use in commercial vehicles bore fruit when its 4067cc six-cylinder design emerged. This engine would play an important role in GMC’s future military contracts, as would the model 4929 truck. However, the engine’s first military application was to power the 21/2-ton 6×6 model 4937, only 11 of which were built – 10 for the US Marine Corps and one for export. With the exception of the engine, the rest of the powertrain was shared with the model 4929.

In 1939 the US Army issued solicitation to bid number 398-40-2601939 and the die was cast for the truck that would ultimately become the ubiquitous CCKW. The specification called for a cross-country payload of 5000 lb (2273kg), required a top speed of 45mph (72km/h) and demanded the ability to climb a 1:30 gradient in direct drive.

Studebaker and Mack responded to the solicitation, as did Yellow Truck and Coach, the latter designating its new design the model ACKWX-353 (A = 1939 model year; C = conventional cab; K = selective front-wheel drive; W = driven tandem axles; X = non-standard (Timken) driveline; 353 = chassis code). Bids were opened on 18 May 1939, and the contract awarded to GM on 15 June of the same year. The company delivered 32 of the new trucks on 4 January 1940, with one more four days later, all powered by the same 4067cc engine as the model  4929 and 4937. Thereafter, the ACKWX-353 was powered by a 4198cc version of the same engine.

While the GMC parts book indicates that the serial number range for these vehicles was ACKWX353-3604 through ACKWX353-6070, totaling 2466 vehicles, GM’s records show that 2469 were built under contract for the US government (this includes the 33 trucks powered by the 4067cc engine). Fifty of the trucks, all powered by the larger capacity engine, were equipped with winches. A further single unit was built for GM’s demonstration purposes, and a single right-hand drive version with the 4067cc engine was built for the French, with another possibly for Switzerland. By far the largest overseas order was for 1000 trucks with the 4198cc engine, which went to Great Britain in 1941 on sales order 10000-999.

While it has been reported that some overseas customers felt that the 4198cc powerplant was too much engine for the truck, the feeling Stateside was that the vehicle needed more reserve power. GM therefore responded by beefing up the engine to a more formidable 4428cc. Not content to merely increase the stroke, GM also improved bearings and cylinder head cooling at the same time. Incredibly, the first engine was run less than a month after the concept was floated on 18 July 1940, and the foundation was laid upon which to build the next generation of military 6x6s, the CCKWX.

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Laminar air flow – Laminar flow is when a fluid (like air) moves in parallel layers with no disruptive perpendicular cross-currents. This is experienced over the car’s chassis.

Thrust – The forward thrust from the engine counteracts the forces of drag. The more drag that acts on the car, the harder the engine has to work to speed the vehicle up.

Rolling resistance – Rolling resistance is the force acting against the tyres as they turn. The higher the rolling resistance, the more energy (ie fuel) is needed to push the car along.

Lift — Lift counters downforce and is created as air flows around and below the car, pushing it up. Lift in a car is bad: it means loss of traction, which goes against acceleration.

Gravity – Like everything else on our planet, gravity constantly acts on a car to pull the object towards the ground. This is a form of friction, slowing the car down.

Downforce – A downwards thrust created chiefly by the aerodynamic physics of a car such as a spoiler or wing. Downforce is essential to keeping the car planted to the ground.

Drag – Drag is a form of wind resistance defined as still air pushing against a moving object. Drag counteracts thrust, so the more a car speeds up, the more drag increases.

Turbulent air flow – Air at the back of the car experiences distortion laterally, with its layers interacting through a series of eddies and rough currents.

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The technology to create high-power lasers has been around for decades. It’s only in the last 20 years, however, with the increasingly sophisticated use of computers on the battlefield and power-output efficiencies of lasers, that tactical use of lasers for defence has become practical.

Boeing has taken this a step further by strapping a ten-kilowatt solid-state laser to the roof of an eightwheeled, 370-kilowatt (500-horsepower), Oshkosh Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck that also houses the laser’s power source.

It’s been called the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD), and it’s capable of acquiring and tracking multiple projectiles as they move across the sky using a nearby radar station, then target them by focusing a beam of intense laser energy onto the projectile until it explodes, more cost effective than the previous deuterium fluoride laser versions (which cost several thousand dollars in fuel every time they were fired) and there’s also plenty of scope to move up to even more powerful, 100-kilowatt lasers.

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In an automotive alternator, the mechanical energy is delivered by the vehicle’s crankshaft, which rotates. This rotational energy is passed via a drive belt and pulley to the alternator, and replicates it in an internal rotor shaft.

The turning of the alternator’s rotor shaft causes an attached iron core, surrounding field winding and set of staggered magnetic claw poles to rotate at high speed (up to thousands of times per minute). This entire assembly is referred to as the alternator’s rotor, with it slotting into another element called the stator.

The alternator’s stator is a laminated soft iron, roughly spherical component wrapped with, typically, three sets of copper phase windings. The stator, unlike the rotor, is fixed in place, attached to the inside of the alternator’s housing. As mentioned, the rotor sits within the stator while it spins, with the two offset slightly to avoid any direct contact.

As the rotor assembly rotates the staggered magnetic claw poles (with north and south poles alternating) generate a magnetic field. Because the field lines continuously change, however – due to the north-south polarity of the claw poles – the flux within the stator changes too, inducing an alternating current to flow through its phase windings.

As the current in the stator’s phase windings is alternating, it needs to be converted into direct current (DC) for use in battery charging. This is achieved by feeding the alternating current in each phase winding through stator leads and into a set of diodes (two for each lead). Known as rectifiers, these diodes ensure that current flows in a single direction.

The total flow of direct current from each of the phase windings combined is controlled by a regulator unit. This prevents an excess of direct current from being fed into the vehicle’s battery – something that if left unchecked would cause it to overcharge and potentially explode.

Alternator anatomy

Casing – The outer housing of the alternator is made from aluminium. This material is used as it reduces weight, dissipates heat and does not magnetise.

Regulator – This controls the distribution of the electrical energy that the alternator produces, ensuring a safe power supply to the vehicle’s battery and electrical systems.

Diode assembly – The diodes convert the AC energy produced by the alternator into usable DC by only letting current move in one direction.

Stator – The stator is a stationary set of copper coils (phase windings) that the alternator’s rotor slots between. The stator acts as an armature, inducing voltage due to the influence of the rotor-generated magnetic field.

Rotor assembly – The rotor is made up of claw poles placed around a series of field windings and an iron core. The poles alternate in a staggered pattern to induce flux, and thus current, in the stator.

Pulley – The pulley holds the engine’s drive belt, which is connected to the vehicle’s crankshaft. This supplies the alternator’s rotor shaft with rotational energy.

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If the might of the U-boat was thought to be at its peak in 1917, however, then by the start of World War II in 1939, they had risen to a whole other level.

Over 50 new German U-boats were built or already in construction and this impressive submarine fleet proceeded to enjoy much success raiding supply lines and sinking Allied vessels. One of the foremost of these next-generation U-boats was the VII-C – the most advanced submarine that had ever been built.

Capable of travelling thousands of miles on the water and then able to submerge and strike enemy targets within a 142-kilometre (88-mile) range, the VII-C was the backbone of Germany’s submarine fleet. Armed with a bounty of torpedoes, sea mines and cannons, the VII-C could deliver damage both on the surface and beneath the waves, as well as tie key areas down with traps and blockades. Indeed, the type II was so successful that between 1940 and 1945 568 vessels were commissioned.

In contrast to the impressive German fleet, the Allied fleet was inferior both in number and, in general, in its technology. Interestingly though, records indicate that more U-boats were sunk by Allied vessels than vice versa, with HMS Upholder – a U-class submarine -sinking several in the Mediterranean.

Many of these statistics do not give an accurate portrayal, however, of the overall influence that the German U-boats had during World War II, as their primary purpose was that of economic warfare (eg cutting off supply lines), rather than being solely dedicated to battle.

Navigation – Navigation and detection were handled by a suite of systems including a periscope, radar antenna and magnetic compass. These allowed the U-boat to pick up both surface and undersea targets.

Torpedoes — Five 533mm (21in) torpedo tubes – four in the bow and one in the stern – were installed and left armed for quick attack. A total of 14 torpedoes could be carried at any one time.

Main gun – The VII-C was equipped with an 8.8cm (3.5in) SK C/35 naval cannon for use on the surface. It could fire armour-piercing, high-explosive and illumination rounds.

Hydroplane – Movement underwater was controlled with a series of hydroplanes -short, wing-like appendages that could be angled as desired. Facing them up caused the vessel to dive.

Dive tank – A series of ballast dive tanks were located at the lower front of the vessel. When on the surface these tanks were empty and filled with air; to submerge, they were flooded with water.

Air tank – Almost everything on the U-boat required air to operate, ranging from torpedo launchers to dive tanks. As such, large air tanks were located all over the vessel.

Conning tower – Each VII-C was topped with a conning tower at the centre of the vessel. The commander of the U-boat controlled the submarine from here when surfaced.

Flak cannon – A few VII-Cs were fitted with a flak cannon too. These 20mm (0.8in) guns were used to fire at any enemy attack aircraft trying to blow the U-boat out the water.

Fuel tank – Due to limited internal space, the VII-C’s fuel tanks were mounted in a saddle arrangement over its back, with twin cavities extending from each side.

Battery array – Huge banks of electrical batteries were located in the lower centre portion of the U-boat. These supplied energy for the motors and lights.

Crew quarters – Living quarters were situated throughout the vessel. Up to 44 people could be accommodated, with individuals sleeping on narrow, wall-mounted bunk beds.

Engine – When on the surface, the U-boat was propelled by two supercharged six-cylinder, four-stroke M6V 40/46 diesel engines. These generated a maximum 2,400kW (3,200hp).

Motors – While submerged the U-boat was propelled by a brace of electric motors that produced 560kW (750hp). These were needed as the diesel engines required air to operate.

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