Yamato 1

Yamato-1 is a ship built in the early 1990s by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. at Wadasaki-cho Hyogo-ku, Kobe. It uses magnetohydrodynamic drives (MHDDs) driven by liquid helium-cooled superconductors and can travel at 15 km/h (8 knots).

Yamato-1 was the first working prototype of her kind. It was completed in Japan in 1991, by the Ship & Ocean Foundation (later known as the Ocean Policy Research Foundation). The ship, which includes two magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thrusters, which have no moving parts, was first successfully operated in Kobe harbour in June 1992.

An MHDD works by applying a magnetic field to an electrically conducting fluid. The electrically conting fluid used in the MHD thrusters of Yamato-1 is seawater.

In the 1990s, Mitsubishi built several prototypes of ships propelled by MHDD systems. Despite projected higher speeds, these ships were only able to reach speeds of 15 km/h.

Afterwards, Yamato-1 was on display at the Kobe Maritime Museum, but it was demolished in 2016.