The First Commercial Remotely Operated Vehicle

[Akimbo]

List of RCV units in March 1983

I know that one of Hydro Products' sales reps purchased (or leased?) an RCV and operated it on platforms off Santa Barbara in 1974. I don't see it on the list, but may have changed hands when this list was compiled. He (the rep) was one of our business advisors on the Saturation Systems' Andrea Doria salvage project in 1973.

As far as I know, The US Navy's CURV (Cable-controlled Undersea Recovery Vehicle) was the first successful vehicle of this type. The CURV program was transferred to the Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego in the late 1960s. I have no idea if CURV had any impact on Hydro Products' RCV program, but it is highly likely.

Hydro Products was the most logical choice for the development contract since their CCTV and lighting systems were so widely used by the Navy, in addition to being located in San Diego. Submarine Development Group One at the Pt Loma Sub base was involved with a lot of "special projects" that needed the RCV's unique capability.

 

[sageGrouse]

The RCV you mention the sales rep having may have been the very early RCV-125, of which only a few were made, and there isn't a lot of information about since it was quickly replaced with the RCV-225.

CURV used Hydro Products equipment (likely cameras & lighting). I have not seen anything that makes me think Hydro was in on the design of the CURV itself. The impression I get is that the ANTHRO project had the most impact on the development of the RCV line. Hydro also did the mine neutralization vehicle (MNV) later for the Navy.

Hydro Products cameras were on a lot of manned and unmanned submersibles, and yeah, special projects. I have slides of some submersibles and 8mm film of a couple. There's at least one I haven't been able to identify. I'll post them in a different thread as I find time to scan. Maybe someone will recognize the one's I don't know.