JAPANESE SHIPBUILDING: RECENT TOPICS

This article reports on two developments in Japanese shipbuilding. The first section, headed "Super-Tech Ship Looks Toward the 21st Century," is about a test-tank demonstration of a 1/50 scale model ship given at the Shipbuilding Technologies Research Institute in Japan on 14 October 1988. The demonstration culminated a 5-year research project named "Advanced Navigation System for Highly Dependable Intelligent Ship." The model performed simulated berthing and unberthing maneuvers and also showed its ability to take evasive maneuvers relative to other ships. The model ship demonstration was accompanied by a demonstration of a multiple-CRT screen display simulation of the Advanced Automatic Navigation System, the component modules of which are identified. The second section of the article is headed "Techno-Super Liner `93" and describes a 5-year project launched in August 1988 to develop a high-speed freighter (50 knots with a 1,000 ton payload) to serve coastal zones, remote islands and neighboring countries at an intended cost of 1/10th that of air freight.