USS Plainview was, in its time, the world’s largest hydrofoil. Named after the cities of Plainview, New York and Plainview, Texas,she was also the United States Navy’s first hydrofoil research ship. Foilborne propulsion consisted of two General Electric LM1500 free-turbine turboshaft engines, derivatives of the J79 turbojets used in the F-4 Phantom aircraft, but during conventional (hull borne) operations she was driven by two diesel engines.
source/image: Mustard
Her homeport was Bremerton, Washington. Plainview carried out long range experimental programs to evaluate the design principles of hydrofoils and to develop and evaluate tactics and doctrine for hydrofoils, particularly in anti-submarine warfare, and helped to determine the feasibility of hydrofoil operations in high seas.Watch the video from Mustard for more info:
Plainview was decommissioned at 10:30 am, 22 September 1978, at Pier 7, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 September 1978, Plainview was sold for scrapping by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) on 1 July 1979 to General Metals (now Schnitzer Metals) on the Hylebos Waterway, Tacoma, Washington.
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She was partially scrapped in 2004.As of 10 April 2019, she lies abandoned on mudflats, on private property, near Astoria, OregonCoordinates: 46.256886°N 123.851683°W.
