Quote:
Originally Posted by FireDragon76
Frankly, the Soviets first efforts in the November class were probably better than America's first. The Nautilus was noisy underwater and couldn't sustain full speed of 20 knots. The Albacore hull design of later submarines had to be mated up to nuclear propulsion to really make a winning submarine platform.
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Nautilus was more of a prototype to prove the concept and what a concept it was and more importantly it worked fantastically.
I agree nautilus had limitations i think its fair to say all the first generation boats did but what nautilus achieved in the early years was remarkable.
as for noise the November was no better in fact probably just as noisy if not louder than nautilus especially when pushing 30 knots.
overall the quality even in the nautilus I would say was superior to the Novembers and not just the build but sensor technology too something the Russians didn't pick up until the late 1970's with the victor III
Indeed the albacore plus a reactor made for the winning formula definitely