USS Tucumcari (PGH-2)

USS Tucumcari (PGH-2) was a Boeing-built prototype patrol gunboat hydrofoil of the United States Navy, one of two experimental craft ordered under project SCB 252 to evaluate the latest hydrofoil technology, the other being the Grumman-built USS Flagstaff. Its distinctive feature was waterjet propulsion with a computer-controlled, fully submerged foil layout of one foil at the bow and foils on the port and starboard sides. It was built at a cost of 4 million dollars by a Boeing subcontractor in Tacoma, Washington, then assembled and outfitted at a Boeing facility in Seattle, launched on 15 July 1967 and delivered to the Navy on 8 March 1968. It served in Operation Market Time off South Vietnam, toured NATO countries in 1971 carried on the deck of a tank landing ship, and ran aground on a coral reef off Vieques Island on 16 November 1972, after which it was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and used as a test hulk. Its reliable waterjet drive was later used on the Pegasus-class hydrofoils and the Boeing Jetfoil ferries.