My very first submarines
.I made the one on the left in 1973 when I was 11, Grandad kicked the fudge out of me for using all his plumbers solder for ballast, It was made of wood and rubber band powered the performance was pretty diabolical to be honest, if i'd have known me then i'd have kicked the fudge out of me too!
Ten years later I built the one on the right, still made of wood,still rubber band powered and still didnt dive. By now id moved from the stone age to the iron age, the discovery of iron tools at least made it straighter. These early days of experimentation were great because as well as having fun in my local pond , it taught me the very fundamental principles of buoyancy and hydrodynamics also power to weight ratios. The Sutcliffe submarines were limited in that they only dive, I wanted a sub that could run on the surface and dive when required,so began my endeavours to build the perfect toy submarine. (still ongoing to this day! How sad is that!!! )