Testing
Tests of scale models in windtunnels and water-tanks has helped to refine the shape of the Quicksilver craft. For example, extensive windtunnel testing has been undertaken at the University of Southampton over a period of several years, using one-eighth-scale and one-fifth-scale models. The windtunnel used by the Quicksilver team has a "moving ground" which simulates the fast-moving presence of the water's surface beneath the craft.
The design of Formula 1 racing cars fielded by the Jordan and Tyrrell teams has been perfected in the same windtunnel, using the "moving ground" to simulate a racetrack surface.
Just as aerodynamic performance has been refined by windtunnel tests, so hydrodynamic performance has been refined by water-tank tests. In particular, an intensive series of waterborne tests was conducted with a one-eighth-scale model in the towing-tank facility at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA)'s Centre for Marine Technology at Haslar, near Portsmouth. DERA, now part of the Qinetiq organisation, was at that time an agency of the UK Ministry of Defence.