Chuck English, director of playful learning and inquiry at the Science Museum of Virginia, discusses a true curiosity from the 1960s – an aluminum submarine with Richmond connections.
Aluminaut
(1964)
In 1942, J. Louis Reynolds, an executive at Richmond-based Reynolds Metals Co., had an idea: He would build an aluminum undersea ship, suitable for warfare and cargo transportation, to highlight the metal's strength. In 1964, after years of development, testing and fabrication, Reynolds’ great experiment – dubbed the Aluminaut – was officially launched.
The Aluminaut weighed about 80 tons, was 50 feet long and could accommodate a crew of seven or eight. Built in Groton, Conn., and based in Miami, the $3 million sub was designed to operate at depths of up to 15,000 feet and was suited for many types of oceanographic and salvage missions – some of which marked notable moments in 1960s history.
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One such operation came in early 1966, when a thermonuclear bomb was lost in the Mediterranean Sea after a B-52 bomber and a refueling plane crashed over Spain. The Aluminaut joined a number of military vessels in the search and recovery mission, which lasted nearly three months.
The bomb was actually found by the fellow deep-sea submersible Alvin, which would later owe a debt of gratitude to the Aluminaut. In October 1968, the Alvin sank nearly 5,000 feet into the Atlantic about 90 miles south of Nantucket, Mass. Nearly a year later, the Aluminaut was able to reach the Alvin and secure a line to it so it could be hauled back to the surface.
The Aluminaut also participated in the Navy's recovery of a torpedo in 1968, and it even helped make movies for renowned explorer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau.
But the aluminum sub's career was brief: She was decommissioned from service in 1970, with more than 250 dives to her credit. The Aluminaut was donated to the Science Museum of Virginia in 1991, and now perched in the western portion of the Garner Pavilion, she serves as a prominent reminder of Richmond’s history of innovation.
(smv.org)