Fake shark skin to make Navy faster

Syntethic shark skin could make the Navy fleet faster by stopping the growth of barnacles on ships which can increase drag by up to 15%. Speedo has said that swimsuits made from syntetic shark skin can reduce drag by up to 4%. The Navy spends $600 million a year to power the ships and $50 million related to barnacles and organisms. The Shark scales are the key to the new design. Scales are made up of "dentin" which is like tiny teeth so if you stroked a shark it would be smooth one way but rough the other.

Source

Speedo has said that swimsuits made from syntetic shark skin can reduce drag by up to 4%.

Hah, 4%!!! 10% for some of us (joking)

Interesting find I wonder how much it will cost implement this "shark skin"?

[edit on 23/7/2005 by SportyMB]

Sorry man another thread has already been done on this.

weird

so a skin covered in little hooks would speed things up??? that doesnt make sense, but i guess those scientists know their stuff. ;o

that would be great if its true