One of my favorite TV shows as a kid was “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” It was made in the
mid 60s as a futuristic show set in the 70s and later the 80s. The
main submarine in the show called the Seaview (billed as the first
privately owned nuclear submarine) was cool enough, but when they
introduced a mini-sub that could fly in the second season, it
turned a lot of heads. There were toy versions and models of it for
sale in every department store. They called it the FS-1 (Flying
Sub-1), but there was at least one other called the FS-2 (they kept
crashing these in the stories, so the following week a new one would
show up.)
Obviously most of the footage on the show, especially the
underwater scenes were done with miniature models, but what I just
found out is that the FS-1 was an actual flying sub made by General
Dynamics and Reynolds Metal in 1964-65. It featured a pair of massive
solid-fuel turbine engines and really could both fly and submerge. It
was used by the Navy until the mid 70s. Here it is:
Some of the flying footage on
the show was actually done with the real thing! It was built to look
like a stingray, and they succeeded except for the yellow color. But
who knew this thing was rea!? And here I was saving all those Bazooka
Joe wrappers for the coveted human powered submarine prize thinking
it might be as cool as the FS-1 when I got it—not!
