PowerSwim

The PowerSwim is a device somewhat like two pairs of long thin airplane wings, one
pair at each end of an axis. The axis is fastened to a scuba diver's shins by straps
round his legs. The longer pair of wings (about 6 feet (1.8 m) wide or a bit less) is at
his hips and the shorter pair is at his ankles. The wings rotate limitedly on axles near
their front edges, and thus on upstroke and downstroke they propel water backwards.
It is claimed that the length of the front wing lets it operate outside the cone of wake
that starts at the diver's shoulders. It is claimed to let a scuba diver or frogman swim
much faster (250%) than with swimfins for the same amount of bodily effort, if used
correctly, and being not motorized, it makes no motor noise to be heard by hostile
hydrophones, but noise would occur if the front wings are allowed to hit the diver's
hips at end of upstroke. It works somewhat like a penguin's or plesiosaur's sidemounted flippers. Its estimated cost is less than $500. The diver uses it by moving his
legs up and down together, letting the knees bend and straighten.
It was developed by DARPA in 2007.
Aqueon
Aqueon is or was a similar device to PowerSwim. It was primarily developed in the
1950s by the Innerspace Corporation, an aquatic propulsion company which
specialized in submersible thrusters at the time. Its front wings, at least sometimes,
are shorter than with PowerSwim. The diver held onto it by trapping it between his
shins by putting his shins in the side hollows of two ?-shaped attachments. The first
working Aqueon unit was sold in 1979. Its original designer was California Institute
of Technology graduate Calvin "Cal" Gongwer. It was claimed to provide three times
as much thrust as conventional swimming fins and up to six times as much power,
and that from a stationary start, a swimmer covered 25 yards in 8.4 seconds using
Aqueon, and that with an Aqueon a swimmer covered 1500 yards with scuba
equipment in 24 minutes; the fastest time covered by the same diver with scuba
equipment and fins was 44 minutes. The Aqueon was reportedly examined at length
and during multiple "pool parties" at the Gongwer residence by DARPA scientists
before they created their new concept.
Rube Goldberg meets Aquaman
PowerSwim would allow swimmers to go faster and farther, says DARPA.
by
Mark Rutherford
DARPA, the Defense Department's R&D wing, is working on a contraption that
allows Navy SEALs and others to swim 150 percent faster and with less effort than

they would with regular fins. A rubberband airplane-looking thing, the PowerSwim is
kind of like Rube Goldberg meets Aquaman.
Appearances aside, it aims to replace the flutter kick with something resembling a
dolphinic undulation, causing a hinged foil to oscillate while a "propulsar foil" cuts
the water along side. The approach to swimming is similar to that exhibited by many
fish and aquatic birds, according to the DARPA Web site, "more than 85 percent
efficient in conversion of human motions to forward propulsion."
Still, there's no free ride -- as in a battery pack. The gadget requires muscle work and
training. "The swimmer is essentially relaxing into a slightly bent position, instead of
forcing or pushing the foils through the water," DARPA's Barbara McQuiston told the
magazine. "This takes the emphasis off the small muscle groups used to kick, and
allows larger muscle groups, such as the glutes and quads, to take over."
mazing Underwater Flight
The Aqueon, want to "fly" underwater up to 6 mph under your own power? If so, read
on ...
Calvin A. Gongwer, "Cal" graduated from CalTech in Aeronautical Technology and
has approached design problems from that perspective. Fluids include both air and
water and are governed by fluid dynamics. So shifting from airborne travel to
underwater in practical design is no big change in things, right? Wrong. This 92 year
old renowned hydrodynamicist and inventor is still going hard at it through his
company, Innerspace Corporation along with his son, Dr. Robert Gongwer.
Over time he has amassed over 71 patents in underwater technology. His fertile
imagination has resulted in the creation of numerous innovations, including thrusters
used on many important platforms such as the submersibles Alvin, Deep Rover and
numerous Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) including the Triton, Oceaneering,
Perry and other vehicles.
Cal first had the idea for a oscillating foil propulsion system about 55 years ago. He
was inspired by fish and dolphin tail fin propulsion. How to adapt the motion into a
man-driven device? So came about the Aqueon. The Aqueon is a man-powered diver
propulsion device capable of producing speeds of 5 1/2 kts. A 165 lb. diver was
measured to develop static thrust of 87 lbs. exceeding most electric diver propulsion
vehicles that come to mind. For two years he traveled the world promoting his device
in the 1960's. The world may not quite have been ready.
Cal tells me it took about 50 years for the bicycle to catch on and now look at it
today. In U.S. Navy trials two UDT swimmers equipped with twin 90 cft. diving
tanks (Northhill aluminum 90's, had a pair myself with UDT Frogs back in the day,
sssh) and fins swam for all they were worth a distance of 1500 yds. The divers made

it in 44 min. 20 sec. and were exhausted. They did the run again two hours later with
Aqueons in 24 minutes and arrived energized and ready for more. These swimmers
had minimal experience with the Aqueon. Wonder what their time might have been
with some more practice? Let's think about that, you have a commando force that
becomes knackered swimming full speed with fins but arrives in almost half the time
and in fresh condition with the Aqueon. The teams are still primarily using fins and
electric DPV's, 50 years later?
Cal related a demo he did for the military in one of the towing tanks at the David
Taylor R&D Center in the mid '70's. He was on his game and could really rip with the
Aqueon. He was moving in excess of the speed to create skin ripples on his back
around 4 kts.. So, he was likely the first diver to break the "wrinkle speed barrier."
Last weekend I took the Aqueon out on the Wreck of the Inchulva off Delray Beach,
FL. We were treated to some excellent 70 ft. viz. in bluewater.
Cal has quite a lot of time on the Aqueon naturally enough and some notable
crossings. He crossed length of Lake Tahoe, 22 miles in 14 hours when he was 52.
The next year he topped that by towing a man on a paddle board across the Catalina
Channel in 11 hours.
He told me about sneaking up on basking sharks and giving them a jolt with this
strange looking device on the way to Catalina. He described another case of a fit 185
lb. man who towed his similarly sized brother for 100 m (plus turn at 50 m) in an
underwater breathhold dive in a pool.
I was lucky enough to find one of these in my early UW exploration days as a
teenager in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. My good friend Vic and I used to tool offshore at
speed over the reefs. It was an amazing way to check things out, with minimal
exertion. Vic still has two of these in Alaska, the Bahamas, the Middle East or
wherever he lands next with the requisite dolphins and water.
Recently I contacted Cal and acquired another Aqueon. Some pictures and videos of
the device in action appear throughout this article.
Weve Invented Futuristic Flippers Why Arent the SEALs Using Them?
Foils are better than fins, but theyve been slow to enter the military diving world
by Steve Weintz
Imagine youve developed a device that lets swimmers and divers swim dramatically
farther and faster??and with less fatigue than traditional fins. Imagine your device,
which is easy to learn and simple to operate, lets divers achieve speeds and ranges
equal to those of powered underwater scooters. Imagine professional divers
enthusiastically recommend your device and use it, and you receive positive media
coverage. Youd think the SEALs would be pounding on your door with a check

ready, right?
Nope.
Hydrofoil boats were once as much a symbol of The Future as monorails, but like
monorails, their real-world success has been spotty. High fuel consumption hastened
their decline as much as changing tastes in transportation. During the peak of the
hydrofoils popularity, however, the foil concept was also applied to human-powered
aquatic propulsion.
What distinguishes a foil from traditional fins is the aspect ratio of the fin and

flexibility, says Ron Smith, an aerospace engineer and champion freediver. Foils
are relatively rigid and usually have aspect ratios greater than one. Traditional fins are
very flexible and usually have aspect ratios less than one. Foils will often have a wide
slender and look like an airplane wing, whereas traditional fins will be long in
length.
Why foils over flexing fins? The main reason is power. The power that can be
transmitted through a flexible fin is limited by the stiffness of the spring and the
length of the fin blade, says Smith. Foils, on the other hand, have neither of these
restrictions. As such, they can pack a lot more capability into a smaller package with
less drag.
Eric Fattah testing a Smith Aerospace Orca hydrofoil monofin
How much power? Swimmers can reach five to six miles per hour using such a
device. At slower speeds, endurance can be measured in hours, not minutes. The
application of foils to swimming goes back to mid-century Southern California and
an American original.
Calvin Gongwer received a BA in mechanical engineering from Columbia and his
MA in aeronautical engineering at Caltech, but never worked as an aeronautical
engineer. From school and GMs Lubrication Lab he went New London, Connecticut,
to work on anti-submarine warfare efforts during World War II.
After the war, he joined Aerojet General as a hydrodynamicist. Calvin counted his
invention of Alco propellant while at Aerojet as one of his best efforts. Alco instantly
and completely roars into a ferociously hot fire??perfect for igniting solid-fuel
rocket motors, which must get lit up evenly and at once. Alco propellant is used to
fire off everything from rocket-propelled grenades to space boosters.
Calvin was fascinated by applying muscle power to aquatic motion. Robert Gongwer,
Calvins son and director of Innerspace Corporation, recalls a pedal-powered
eggbeater vessel consisting of nothing more than a pole with a bicycle seat, pedals
and gears atop a large upside-down propeller arrangement just submerged below the
surface. (The gizmo couldnt overcome the waters resistance enough to really work.)

Another, the Aquaped, was something like an underwater recumbent bicycle the
diver lay on his stomach pedaling a pair of angled, counter-rotating props. For
Aerojet, Gongwer created a two-man mini-sub with odd-looking fins which starred
(briefly) in a B-movie sea monsters demise.
The Aqueon
But the Aqueon was the gadget that got most of Calvin Gongwers tremendous
attention. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Bob Gongwer recalls, my father and I
made more than 10 trips to Marineland-of-the-Pacific [a long-gone aquatic theme
park in Los Angeles] just to watch dolphins swim. There were lots and lots of models
both scale and full-size, and reams of paper drawings. It took him many iterations to
find the Aqueons design.
The Aqueon consists of a pair of foils connected by a rod, spring and rope. Its
deceptively simple layout and old-fashioned wood-and-metal construction mask its
sophistication. The swimmer grasps the device between her thighs (no strapping in)
above the rear fixed foil, and with a kick stroke sets the forward oscillating foil
moving. The rod positions the forward foil at and beneath the swimmers center of
gravity, which looks weird but dramatically reduces torque and fatigue. Users then
and now noted the ease with which the Aqueon can be donned and doffed, and how
well it collapses for transport.
Calvin started Innerspace Corporation in 1960 to market the Aqueon. The devices
manifest superiority in speed and range was put to the test in a number of formal and
informal demonstrations. In one test conducted by the U.S. Navy, a pair of
Underwater Demolition Team divers swam 1,500 yards with fins; the first trial took
45 minutes and left them exhausted. The second trial took place two hours later; the
swim using Aqueons took 24 minutes and left the divers ready for more.
The Navy frogmen were in no doubt of the military utility of such a device. Calvin
calculated that an average swimmer could catch an Olympic medalist in 25 yards
from a standing start.
No mean athlete himself, Calvin made his own demonstrations. At 53 years of age he
swam from Catalina Island to Los Angeles Harbor, some 22 miles through shipping
lanes, towing a man on a paddleboard. (When his navigation took him eight miles off
course, Calvin merely swam the extra distance to make landfall in San Pedro in front
of the press cameras.)
A couple of years later, Calvin swam the length of Lake Tahoe with an Aqueon. We
almost lost him in the chop, says Bob Gongwer. We even had the Coast Guard out
there aboard their lovely Chris-Craft yacht, but Calvin was fine, just chugging along.
That was almost 50 years ago, when the Navy was revolutionizing underwater work
and life. With the establishment of the SEALs and the SEALAB program, you might

expect that a revolutionary swimming aid would have swiftly if quietly found a
market. But despite the demos and rave reviews, no one at the Pentagon ever ran (or
swam) with Calvin Gongwers idea. Nowadays Innerspace Corporation makes its
living manufacturing advanced propulsion systems for underwater drones and subs,
and occasionally sells a few Aqueons to curious enthusiasts.