You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (September 2010) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 9,121 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:FNRS-2]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|FNRS-2}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.
History
Belgium
Name
FNRS-2
Completed
1948
In service
1948
Out of service
1948
Fate
Rebuilt as FNRS-3
General characteristics
Type
Deep-submergence vehicle
Length
15 m (49 ft)
Beam
3.2 m (10 ft)
Draft
6 m (20 ft)
Installed power
1kW electric motor
Speed
0.5 knots (0.93 km/h; 0.58 mph)
Endurance
24h
Test depth
4,000 m (13,000 ft)
Complement
2
The FNRS-3 at the Tour Royale in Toulon.
The FNRS-2 was the first bathyscaphe. It was created by Auguste Piccard. Work started in 1937 but was interrupted by World War II. The deep-diving submarine was finished in 1948. The bathyscaphe was named after the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), the funding organization for the venture. FNRS also funded the FNRS-1 which was a balloon that set a world altitude record, also built by Piccard. The FNRS-2 set world diving records, besting those of the bathyspheres, as no unwieldy cable was required for diving. It was in turn bested by a more refined version of itself, the bathyscaphe Trieste.
FNRS-2 was built from 1946 to 1948. It was damaged during sea trials in 1948, off the Cape Verde Islands.[1]FNRS-2 was sold to the French Navy when FNRS funding ran low, in 1948. The French rebuilt and rebaptised it FNRS-3. It was eventually replaced by the FNRS-4. In February 1954 the FNRS-3 reached a depth of 4,050 metres (13,290 ft) in the Atlantic, 160 miles off Dakar, beating Piccard's 1953 record by 900 metres.[2]
Sea trials
FNRS-2 went for sea trials accompanied by the 3,500 t Belgian ship Scaldis, as its tender. However, Scaldis' crane was not strong enough to lift FNRS-2 while its float was filled, and this proved to be the detail that would end FNRS-2's career. An unmanned test dive to 4,600 feet (1,400 m) was successfully completed, but owing to technical problems, the support crew were unable to empty its float of the gasoline that was used for buoyancy. Scaldis attempted to tow FNRS-2 back to port, but it was battered by ocean waves and sprang a gasoline leak. After the leak was detected, the gasoline was dumped into the sea and FNRS-2 was raised. However, there was no reserve of gasoline for replacement, nor funding to fix the float.[3]
Belgium
Media related to FNRS II-III at Wikimedia Commons
Category
Glossary
Outline
Portal
