Yes! I was thinking that as I read it. Alec Baldwin even says magneto hydrodynamic drive.
Yet another example of Tom Clancy’s incredible knowledge of the intricacies of what the military had on their radar and working that into great stories.
Magneto Hydrodynamic Drives have been a publicly researched concept since the 60s. Magnetic pumps are used routinely in industry. You're definitely exaggerating how visionary Clancy was.
I'm not talking about him coming up with the ideas. But him weaving it as a thing the US Navy had been concerned about the Soviets building – I am saying it's very likely that the US Navy's concern about these drives being used in subs wasn't made up, and maybe some related conversations he had with contacts/sources, that turned out to be one of many seeds that made for a compelling story.
I recently re-read The Hunt For Red October, and what struck me was that there actually wasn't and mention of Magneto-hydrodynamic drive. As I recalled, the book describes a series of propellers in a duct. Certainly interesting for isolating sound, but it struck me as much more simplistic from the superconducting systems described in the movie.
No shade intended towards Mr. Clancy however. I got the impression that he was quite lauded for not simply describing tech (which other thriller writers did as well) but getting into the nuts and bolts of how they operated. That was what really set him apart.
For example, it says the US "looked at this back in the early sixties and got to the model stage before dropping it. One of the things they discovered is that one impeller doesn’t work as well as several. Some sort of back pressure thing."
> The movie is a nearly faithful depiction of the novel even though there are many deviations, including Red October traveling up the Penobscot River in Maine to dry dock, the omission of the Royal Navy task force including Ryan's time aboard HMS Invincible, and the "caterpillar drive" being described as a magnetohydrodynamic drive system, essentially, "a jet engine for the water", rather than a drive powered by a series of mechanical impellers inside flow tunnels.
It was actually the first "adult" book I read. Maybe when I was 9? I told my father I was bored of school books, and he handed it to me.
As well as Clancy's other stuff!
Just stop reading at 2000 (last recommended book: The Bear and the Dragon). After that he started phoning it in / lending out the name as ghostwritten brand.
Beat me to it. Happens to be my favorite movie, ever. I’ve watched it so many times and I’m still not sick of it. What’s so beautiful about it is that it’s pure storytelling without a preachy agenda, though the irony is that it’s very much about politics and patriotism.
The book is even better. I watched the movie about a half dozen times before I read the book and was amazed that I liked the book more. And I still think the movie is great.
"The thing about a new propulsion system, Captain, is its silence... and you don't have to touch a thing. It's all moved by electric currents and magnetic fields. Just one more step towards making submarines even more silent. The next 'Red October', if you will."
“If we meet the right shot, this will work. If we get some… buckaroo?…”
He needed someone on the US side to figure out he was defecting and meet him with a plan to help. He gave it 1 chance in 3. Loved that moment you reference when he realizes he did indeed meet the right shot.
The book has ducted props (which is where the distinctive noise comes from, a unexpected resonance from the length of the duct), the movie substituted MHD for the impeller.
