Will he be recruited by the navy? A 60-year-old Chinese has built a small submarine alone that can accommodate two people, diving eight meters deep and staying underwater for 30 minutes.
Living in a village in the Anhui province (east of China), Zhang Shengwu recently brought his submersible of five tonnes in a river near his home, the CCTV state television said on Thursday.
Images broadcast by the chain show Mr. Zhang piloting the machine, seven meters long and baptized “large black fish”, first on the surface from the ship’s hatch, then underwater with the closed airlock.
This former carpenter, who also worked in maritime transport, embarked on this unlikely project in 2014, inspired by images of construction of submarines seen on television.
“I had spent years by the water. I saw iron boats, wooden boats. But never a ship capable of diving underwater, ”he says, quoted by CCTV.
“So I said to myself: if others can do it, then why not me.”
Despite the reluctance of his wife, who judged the idea “costly, risky and useless”, Zhang Shengwu first invested 5,000 yuan (600 euros, the equivalent of $ 950) to buy steel plates, an engine and other materials.
A first version of its submarine, launched in 2016, turned out to be little waterproof.
“I was afraid he would take water, but I also wanted to go deeper,” he recalls.
After spending 40,000 additional yuan (4,800 euros) in a new structure, poured two tonnes of concrete in the shell and installed two ballasts, its new “large black fish” was finally ready.
Unlike nuclear propulsion submarines of the Chinese army, capable of staying underwater, that of Mr. Zhang operates with a battery and an electric motor, and must resurface every half hour.
The sixty -something man does not intend to stop there: he already plans to build an even larger model.
He is not the first Chinese inventor to embark on the artisanal construction of submarines.
In 2015, a Shaanxi villager (northern China) had a debt of 200,000 yuan (24,000 euros) to make a submersible 9.2 meters long.
In 2009, an employee of a Karaoke bar in Beijing had sailed in a city reservoir basin on board his own submarine.
