Remember the story a few months back about the dolphin that received a “bionic” tail? It was a great human interest story about how a dolphin had lost his tail to disease and veterinarians outfitted him with a prosthetic tail. Well, when I first saw the Lunocet, I wondered … don’t get the name. But then I realized that what it does could be ground breaking for swimmers, thereby giving them dolphin like speed.
Okay, not really, but you could go twice as fast as that Olympic Gold Medalist. The idea is really simple.

Take a pair of shoes and nail them to a carbon fiber fluke shaped platform. Wearing them, the swimmer can dolphin kick and with the additional surface area of the flukes can really pick up speed. A LOT of speed. According to estimates, swimmers outfitted with the Lunocet will be able to his burst of speed in excess of 8 miles an hour and some believe with practice that swimmers could even reach bursts of 30 mph. I don’t know about that, but the details of the design show it’s genius. The monofin flukes, made of carbon fiber and fiberglass get attached to an aluminum foot plate at a 30-degree angle. This enables the swimmer to grab additional leverage as he kicks into the water. The result is not unlike an airfoil which generates waterflow similar to the airflow. Bernoulli’s Principle, it’s not just a good idea. It’s the law.

Cost is about $1500. Cool video here.

Hat Tip – Like Cool