AUTONOMOUS ROBOT STEALTH SHIP

Not for most of us, but sometimes, such as in times of war, peaceful mercy missions, avoiding Somali pirates, or just to be sneaky, being undetected would be an advantage. Otherwise, and to avoid collisions at sea, the ability to be visible on another ship's radar would be a distinct advantage and is in fact a collision avoidance (COLREGS) requirement.

The all new SolarNavigator is the first solar powered boat to feature stealth mode capability. The active design of the hull, combined with wings that move to track the sun, allows this robot boat to cloak itself. Finally, the fictional element of the Klingon 'Bird of Prey', in-part becomes a reality. Most warships that are designed for stealth, have fixed hull designs, with steep angles and a special covering to absorb radio waves. SolarNavigator also has wind turbines on a boom that lowers in storm conditions - and the turbines fold to present less surface area to high speed winds.

The unique combination of folding parts and floodable tanks, is another aspect to the active hull - making this boat a virtual acrobat by comparison to other boats. In addition, the boat can almost completely lower itself onto the sea surface to cope with tropical revolving storms, reducing further the hull area that an enemy radar might pick up on and increasing the survivability factor of the hull tenfold - which robots need, without humans to wet nurse them. The Solarnavigator thus has its fair share of pumps on board, to allow seawater ingress and expulsion. In a submarine this is achieved with compressed air. Balance is achieved without the need for the fins used in conventional SWATH hulls. Read more about this versatility in the Active Hull section.

Klingon Starship - Bird of Prey classes

The Bird of Prey is one of the most common Klingon ships seen in the Star Trek franchise. Introduced in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the Bird of Prey has featured in five of the films and frequently appears in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Industrial Light & Magic designed and built the Bird of Prey for Star Trek III, assisted by the film's director, Leonard Nimoy. In early drafts of the script, the Bird of Prey was to be a Romulan vessel; although this idea was later dropped, the Bird of Prey maintained its cloaking device as a plot point in the film and the Romulan bird feather patterns on its wings were kept. The Bird of Prey is the first Klingon vessel depicted with a cloaking device; all classes chronologically later in the series would also use a cloaking device. The wings of the Bird of Prey are able to move, lowering to attack, maintaining just above horizontal in flight mode and raising high when the ship lands. However, as the studio model's mechanism for moving the wings broke, in later Star Trek series' episodes the wings are usually fixed in either flight mode or attack mode. This was not rectified until the creation of a CGI model for the vessel. The studio models for the Bird of Prey were sold in the 2006 Christie's auction; the original model sold for US$307,200, while an enlarged wing, used for close-up shots in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, was sold for US$8,400.

Although several variants are seen throughout the franchise, design notes state that the Bird of Prey has two main classes: the B'rel-class and the K'Vort-class. Both classes used the same studio model, differing in sizes in proportion to other starships depending on variant. The B'rel-class is a scout vessel, used for espionage, skirmishes and raids, while the K'Vort-class is a light cruiser. Both classes are armed with disruptor cannons mounted on the tips of the wings and a forward torpedo launcher. Likewise, both classes are equipped with cloaking devices and are capable of impulse and warp speeds. With a crew of only 12 and a length of 160 meters, the B'rel-class is far smaller than the K'Vort-class, which measures 320 meters and possesses a crew of 300+. The interior of the Bird of Prey is similar to that of Douglas Trumbull's submarine-like designs for the K't'inga-class; some Birds of Prey are even shown with periscopes to allow the captain to personally target weapons. Despite relatively light armaments, Birds of Prey are shown to be effective craft; both the USS Enterprise and USS Enterprise-D are destroyed in part due to the activity of a Bird of Prey. Normally a Bird of Prey can only fire its weapons when it's not cloaked, but in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country the Klingons built a Bird of Prey that can fire its weapons while cloaked.

The Boeing Bird of Prey developed by McDonnell Douglas's Phantom Works division was named after the Klingon Bird of Prey.

Alloys -	Paints - Coatings
Autonomy - Computers - Software	Project Estimates
Batteries -	Project Objectives
Composites -	PR Events -
Construction - Modular	Propeller -
Diving - Hull survey & repair	Record Attempt
Electronics - Collision Avoidance COLREGS	Screens -
Galley -	Solar Arrays - tracking theory PIC PCB MPPT PV trackers Actuators & circuits
Hydraulics - Active hull -	Stealth - Scorpion laser - Mine hunter
Hull Design - Capsize - SWASSH - Lubrication - Mass	Timber -
Life Support -	Tank Testing - Open water collision avoidance
Model Construction - Hulls - Wings - W'gens - ROV - AI	Tooling -
Motors - DC v AC synchronous	Transmission - gearing & prop shaft/seals
Navigation - Oceanographic Hydrographic Surveying	Treasure hunting - marine archaeology
Paints - Antifouling	Wind Turbines -