Word: yamato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Clancy would love it: an ungainly ship with a state-of-the-art silent propulsion system that is virtually undetectable, even at speeds up to 115 m.p.h. Last month Japan launched the prototype. Christened the YAMATO (also the name of the imperial navy's World War II flagship), the vessel is the first in the world propelled by superconducting magnets that generate a ! powerful jet of water. Such a stealth design so far exists only in the imaginations of Western engineers. The Yamato, of course, is not a warship. But if Japan wanted to build a war machine...
Yamamoto, who had stayed in Japan during Pearl Harbor, took personal command of this huge armada. His flagship was the largest battleship in creation, the 64,000-ton Yamato, whose 18.1-in. guns had a range of more than 25 miles. His carrier chief was once again Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the Pearl Harbor commander who had gone on to wreak havoc on the British fleet. With virtually no losses, Nagumo's planes had bombed British bases at Darwin, Australia, and Colombo, Ceylon; sunk the carrier Hermes and two cruisers; and driven the Royal Navy all the way across...
Sometime within the next year, an eerily quiet, 280-ton lime-green ship will leave the docks at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' shipyard in Kobe, Japan, for the first time. Though it will never speed faster than a leisurely 8 knots or carry more than 10 passengers, the Yamato No. 1's maiden voyage will be as unique as the first time Robert Fulton steamed up the Hudson River. Christened last week with a bottle of sake, the Yamato is the world's first vessel to propel itself through the water using the power of magnetism...
Japanese government and industry are bringing to ocean travel the same technology they have used in the development of magnetically levitated trains. The Yamato, named for a World War II battleship, is powered by superconductive electromagnets that have been cooled down to an energy-efficient -425.47 degrees F. The magnets shoot electrified seawater through a set of jetlike thruster tubes, thus greatly reducing the noise and vibration associated with the traditional rotating propeller. But before this system can be applied commercially, the size of the magnets, which now limits the vessel's speed and cargo space, will have...