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Hovercraft
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A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle (ACV), is a craft, designed to travel over any smooth surface supported by a cushion of slowly moving, high-pressure air, ejected downwards against the surface below, and contained within a "skirt." Hovercraft are used throughout the world as a method of specialized transport where ever there is the need to travel over multiple types of surfaces.
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A hovercraft, or air-cushion vehicle (ACV), is a craft, designed to travel over any smooth surface supported by a cushion of slowly moving, high-pressure air, ejected downwards against the surface below, and contained within a "skirt." Hovercraft are used throughout the world as a method of specialized transport where ever there is the need to travel over multiple types of surfaces. Because they are supported by a cushion of air, hovercraft are unique among all forms of transportation in their ability to travel equally well over land, ice, and water. Small hovercraft are often used for sport or passenger service, while giant hovercraft have been built for civilian and military applications to transport cars, tanks, and large equipment into difficult or hostile environments and terrain.
History
The first fully functional, rigid-walled hovercraft was designed by an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, Dagobert Müller von Thomamühl and built by the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy (Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine) "Seearsenal" (Naval base) in Pula. The 'Versuchsgleitboot - System Thomamühl' was launched on September 2, 1915 and was long, wide, displaced about , had a crew of five men, and had a top speed of over . By 1916, it was undergoing testing as a fast-torpedo boat and was equipped with two torpedoes, one Schwarzlose machine gun, and several "water-bombs", intended for anti-submarine use. It had two propellers, each of which was driven by two 6-cylinder airplane engines, a fifth 4-cylinder engine was used to blow warm air under the hull, creating the "air-cushion or hover" effect. After wide ranging full scale sea trials, the vessel was eventually scrapped in 1917 and the engines returned to the naval air-arm (Luftfahrttruppe); no further testing or research into hovercrafts was undertaken by the Imperial Austro-Hungarian navy during the period up to its eventual capitulation.
Finnish engineer Toivo J. Kaario, head inspector of Valtion Lentokonetehdas (VL) airplane engine workshop, began to design an air cushion craft in 1931. He constructed and tested his craft, dubbed pintaliitäjä (Surface Glider), and received its Finnish patents 18630 and 26122. Kaario is considered to have designed and built the first functional ground effect vehicle, but his invention did not receive sufficient funds for further development.
The first to give scientific description of the ground effect and to provide theoretical methods of calculation of air cushion vehicles was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in his 1927 paper "Air Resistance and the Express Train". Since then Soviet engineer Vladimir Levkov began to develop air cushion vehicles. In the mid 1930s, Levkov assembled about 20 experimental air-cushion boats (fast attack craft and high-speed torpedo boats). The first prototype, designated L-1, had a very simple design which consisted of two small wooden catamarans that were powered by three engines. Two M-11 radial aero-engines were installed horizontally in the funnel-shaped wells on the platform which connected the catamaran hulls together. The third engine, also an air-cooled M-11, was placed in the aft part of the craft on a removable four-strut pylon. An air cushion was produced by the horizontally-placed engines. During successful tests, one of Levkov's air-cushion craft, called fast attack L-5 boat, achieved a speed of .
The first technically and commercially viable hovercraft was invented and patented by the English inventor Christopher Cockerell in 1955.
However, there had been numerous previous experimental attempts to design vehicles using the ground-effect principle, including prototypes built by Russian and German naval designers in World War I. In the US during World War II, Charles J. Fletcher designed his "Glidemobile" while he was a United States Navy Reservist. The design worked on the principle of trapping a constant airflow against a uniform surface (either the ground or water), providing anywhere from ten inches (254 mm) to two feet of lift to free it from the surface, and control of the craft would be achieved by the measured release of air. Shortly after being tested on Beezer's Pond in Fletcher's home town of Sparta Township, New Jersey, the design was immediately appropriated by the United States Department of War and classified, denying Fletcher the opportunity to patent his creation. As such Fletcher's work was largely unknown until a case was brought (British Hovercraft Ltd v. The United States of America) in which the British corporation maintained that its rights, coming from to Sir Christopher Cockerell's patent, had been infringed. British Hovercraft's claim, seeking US$104,000,000 in damages, was unsuccessful. In a case brought in 1985, Patent agents BTG successfully sued the US Department of Defence, being awarded $6 million in damages in 1990.
However, Colonel Melville W. Beardsley (1913-1998), an American inventor and aeronautical engineer, received $80,000 from Cockerell for his rights to American patents. Beardsley worked on a number of unique ideas in the 1950s and '60s which he patented. His company built craft based on his designs at his Maryland base for the US Government and commercial applications. Beardsley later worked for the US Navy on developing the hovercraft further for military use. Dr. W. Bertelsen also worked on developing early ACVs in the USA. Dr. Bertelsen built an early prototype of a hovercraft vehicle in 1959 (called Aeromobile 35-B), and was photographed for Popular Science magazine riding the vehicle over land and water in April on 1959. The article on his invention was the front page story for the July, 1959 edition of Popular Science.
In 1952 the British inventor Christopher Cockerell worked with air lubrication with test craft on the Norfolk Broads. From this he moved on to the idea of a deeper air cushion. Cockerell used simple experiments involving a vacuum cleaner motor and two cylindrical cans to create his unique peripheral jet system, the key to his hovercraft invention, patented as the "hovercraft principle". He proved the workable principle of a vehicle suspended on a cushion of air blown out under pressure, making the vehicle easily mobile over most surfaces. The supporting air cushion would enable it to operate over soft mud, water, and marshes and swamps as well as on firm ground. He designed a working model vehicle based on his patent. Showing his model to the authorities led to it being put on the secret list as being of possible military use and therefore restricted. However, in 1958, to keep Britain in the lead in developments, the National Research Development Corporation took on his design (paying £1,000 for the rights) and paid for an experimental vehicle, the SR-N1 to be built by Saunders-Roe to Cockerell's design. It was launched on June 11, 1959.
Shortly afterwards it made a crossing from France to the United Kingdom on the 50th anniversary of Bleriot's cross Channel flight. However, stability problems remained, and it was the invention of the segmented skirt by his close colleague and collaborator, engineer Denys Bliss in 1962
which solved these and made the hovercraft a commercial reality. According to BTG the Bliss patent was "the key factor for success". A further patent 1239745 "Anti-ditch shift of cushion C.P" was taken out jointly by Cockerell and Bliss in July 1967.
Cockerell was knighted for his services to engineering in 1969. Sir Christopher coined the word hovercraft to describe his invention.
Design
Hovercraft can be powered by one or more engines. Small craft, such as the SR-N6, usually have one engine with the drive split through a gearbox. On vehicles with several engines, one usually drives the fan, or (impeller), which is responsible for lifting the vehicle by forcing high pressure air under the craft. The air inflates the "skirt" under the vehicle, causing it to rise above the ground. Additional engines provide forward thrust in order to propel the craft. Some hovercraft utilize ducting to allow one engine to perform both tasks by directing some of the air to the skirt, the rest of the air passing out of the back to push the craft forward.
Skirt Development
A major advancement in hovercraft design was the invention of the "Double-Walled Flexible Skirt" by Norman B. McCreary in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA (Patent No. 3,532,179). The design first appeared in the Arkansas Gazette Newspaper on Jan. 25, 1960 and later in Science and Mechanics Magazine in June, 1960. Later known as the "Bag Skirt", it inflated around the edge of the hovercraft, and was a major technological development enabling hovercraft to more effectively travel over uneven terrain or waves. The "Bag Skirt" would raise and lower the hovercraft off the ground by inflation and deflation of the "Double-Walled Flexible Skirt". Later fingers were added to the bottom of the skirt to compensate for wear and reduce drag. After this concept was made public in 1960, all hovercraft began utilizing a "Double-Walled Flexible Skirt" system for practical hovercraft operations. Initially the skirt was of equal length around the base of the hovercraft. In the mid-1960s it was discovered that the ability of hovercraft to overcome small obstacles was enhanced by adjusting the vehicle's pitch 15 degrees upward. This resulted in excess wear on the trailing skirts, which dragged along the surface and lasted only 20% as long as the bow skirt sections. The problem was overcome, beginning with the SR.N 6, by angling the lower edge of the skirt 15 degrees so that it rested even with the surface while the vehicle maintains a 15 degree upward pitch.
Variants
Civil use
The British aircraft manufacturer Saunders-Roe which had aeronautical expertise developed the first practical man-carrying hovercraft, the SR-N1, which carried out several test programmes in 1959 to 1961 (the first public demonstration in 1959), including a cross-channel test run. The SR-N1 was powered by one (piston) engine, driven by expelled air. Demonstrated at the Farnborough Airshow in 1960, it was shown that this simple craft could carry a load of up to 12 marines with their equipment as well as the pilot and co-pilot with only a slight reduction in hover height proportional to the load carried. The SR.N1 did not have any skirt instead using the peripheral air principle that Sir Christopher has patented. It was later found that the craft's hover height was improved by the addition of a 'skirt' of flexible fabric or rubber around the hovering surface to contain the air. The skirt was an independent invention made by a Royal Navy officer, C.H. Latimer-Needham, who sold his idea to Westland (parent company of Saunders-Roe), and who worked with Sir Christopher to develop the idea further.
The first passenger-carrying hovercraft to enter service was the Vickers VA-3, which in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the north Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside to Rhyl. It was powered by two turboprop aero-engines and driven by propellers.
During the 1960s Saunders-Roe developed several larger designs which could carry passengers, including the SR-N2, which operated across the Solent in 1962 and later the SR-N6, which operated across the Solent from Southsea to Ryde on the Isle of Wight for many years. Operations by Hovertravel commenced on July 24, 1965 using the SR-N6 which carried just 38 passengers. Two modern 98 seat AP1-88 hovercraft now ply this route, and over 20 million passengers have used the service as of 2004.
In 1966, two Cross Channel passenger hovercraft services were inaugurated using hovercraft. Hoverlloyd ran services from Ramsgate Harbour, England, to Calais, France, and Townsend Ferries also started a service to Calais from Dover, which was soon superseded by that of Seaspeed.
As well as Saunders-Roe and Vickers (which combined in 1966 to form the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC)), other commercial craft were developed during the 1960s in the UK by Cushioncraft (part of the Britten-Norman Group) and Hovermarine (the latter being 'Sidewall Hovercraft', where the sides of the hull projected down into the water to trap the cushion of air with 'normal' hovercraft skirts at the bow and stern).
The world's first car-carrying hovercraft made their debut in 1968, the BHC Mountbatten class (SR-N4) models, each powered by four Rolls-Royce Proteus gas turbine engines. These were both used by rival operators Hoverlloyd and Seaspeed to operate regular car and passenger carrying services across the English Channel. Hoverlloyd operated from Ramsgate, where a special hoverport had been built at Pegwell Bay, to Calais. Seaspeed operated from Dover, England to Calais and Boulogne in France. The first SR-N4 had a capacity of 254 passengers and 30 cars, and a top speed of . The Channel crossing took around 30 minutes and was run rather like an airline with flight numbers. The later SR-N4 MkIII had a capacity of 418 passengers and 60 cars. These were later joined by the French-built SEDAM N500 Naviplane with a capacity of 385 passengers and 45 cars, of which only one example entered service and was used intermittently for a few years on the cross-channel service until returned to SNCF in 1983. The service ceased in 2000 after 32 years, due to competition with traditional ferries, catamaran, the advancing age of the SR-N4 hovercraft and the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
In 1998, the US Postal Service began using the British built Hoverwork AP1-88 to haul mail, freight, and passengers from Bethel, Alaska to and from eight small villages along the Kuskokwim River. Bethel is far removed from the Alaska road system, thus making the hovercraft an attractive alternative to the air based delivery methods used prior to introduction of the hovercraft service. Hovercraft service is suspended for several weeks each year while the river is beginning to freeze to minimize damage to the river ice surface. The hovercraft is perfectly able to operate during the freeze-up period; however, this could potentially break the ice and create hazards for villagers using their snowmobiles along the river during the early winter.
The commercial success of hovercraft suffered from rapid rises in fuel prices during the late 1960s and 1970s following conflict in the Middle East. Alternative over-water vehicles such as wave-piercing catamarans (marketed as the SeaCat in Britain) use less fuel and can perform most of the hovercraft's marine tasks. Although developed elsewhere in the world for both civil and military purposes, except for the Solent Ryde to Southsea crossing, hovercraft disappeared from the coastline of Britain until a range of Griffon Hovercraft were bought by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. In October 2008 The Red Cross commenced a flood-rescue service hovercraft based in Inverness, Scotland.
In Finland. small hovercraft are widely used in maritime rescue and during the rasputitsa ("mud season") as archipelago liaison vehicles. In England, hovercraft of the Burnham-on-Sea Area Rescue Boat (BARB) are used to rescue people from thick mud in Bridgwater Bay. Also Avon Fire and Rescue Service became the first fire service in the UK to operate a hovercraft. It is used to rescue people from thick mud in the Weston-super-Mare area and during times of inland flooding.
The Scandinavian airline SAS used to charter an AP. 1-88 Hovercraft for regular passengers between Copenhagen Airport, Denmark and the SAS Hovercraft Terminal in Malmö, Sweden.
An experimental service was operated in Scotland across the Firth of Forth (between Kirkcaldy and Portobello, Edinburgh), 16-28 July 2007. Marketed as Forthfast, the service used a craft chartered from Hovertravel Ltd and achieved 85% loadings. The possibility of establishing a permanent service is now under consideration.
Following the abandonment of hovercraft use across the English Channel, and pending any reintroduction on the Scottish route, the United Kingdom's only public hovercraft service is that operated by Hovertravel between Southsea (Portsmouth) and Ryde, on the Isle of Wight.
From 1960s, several commercial lines were operated in Japan, without much success. In the country, the only commercial line still available is the one that links Oita Airport and the central Oita.
Military use
First applications of the hovercraft in military use was with the SR.N1 through SR.N6 craft built by Saunders-Roe in the Isle of Wight in the UK and used by the UK joint forces. To test the use of the hovercraft in military applications the UK set up the Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit (IHTU) base at Lee-on-the-Solent in the UK (now the site of the Hovercraft Museum). This unit carried out trials on the SR.N1 from Mk1 through Mk5 as well as testing the SR-N2, SR-N3, SR-N5 and SR-N6 craft. Currently the Royal Marines use the Griffon 2000 TDX class ACV as an operational craft. This craft was recently deployed by the UK in Iraq.
In the US, during the 1960s, Bell licenced and sold the Saunders-Roe SRN-5 as the Bell SK-5. They were deployed on trial to the Vietnam War by the Navy as PACV patrol craft in the Mekong Delta where their mobility and speed was unique. This was used in both the UK SR.N5 curved deck configuration and later with modified flat deck, gun turret and grenade launcher designated the 9255 PACV. The United States Army also experimented with the use of SR.N5 hovercraft in Vietnam. Three hovercraft with the flat deck configuration were deployed to Dong Tam in the Mekong delta region and later to Ben Luc. They saw action primarily in the Plain of Reeds. One was destroyed in early 1970 and another in August of that same year after which the unit was disbanded. The only remaining U.S. Army SR.N5 hovercraft is currently on display in the Army Transport Museum in Virginia. Experience led to the proposed Bell SK-10 which was the basis for the LCAC-class air-cushioned landing craft now deployed by the U.S. and Japanese Navy.
The Soviet Union was the world's largest developer of military hovercraft. Their designs range from the small Czilim class ACV, comparable to the SR.N6, to the monstrous Zubr class LCAC, the world's largest hovercraft. The Soviet Union was also one of the first nations to use a hovercraft, the Bora, as a guided missile corvette, though this craft possessed rigid, non-inflatable sides. With the fall of the Soviet Union most Soviet military hovercraft fell into disuse and disrepair. Only recently has the modern Russian Navy begun building new classes of military hovercraft.
The Finnish Navy designed an experimental missile attack hovercraft class, Tuuli class hovercraft, in the late 1990s. The prototype of the class, Tuuli, was commissioned in 2000. It proved an extremely successful design for a littoral fast attack craft, but due to fiscal reasons and doctrinal change in the Navy, the hovercraft was soon withdrawn.
The Hellenic Navy operates four Russian-designed Zubr class LCAC. This is the world’s largest military air-cushioned landing craft.
The People's Army Navy of China operates the Jingsah II class LCAC. This troop and equipment carrying hovercraft is roughly the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Navy LCAC.
Other hovercraft
Hoverbarge
A real benefit of air cushion vehicles in moving heavy loads over difficult terrain, such as swamps, was overlooked by the excitement of the British Government funding to develop high-speed hovercraft. It was not until the early 1970s that the technology was used for moving a modular marine barge with a dragline on board for use over soft reclaimed land.
Mackace (Mackley Air Cushion Equipment) produced a number of successful Hoverbarges, such as the 250 ton payload “Sea Pearl” which operated in Abu Dhabi and the twin 160 ton payload "Yukon Princesses" which ferried trucks across the Yukon river to aid the pipeline build. Hoverbarges are still in operation today. In 2006, Hovertrans (formed by the original managers of Mackace) launched a 330 ton payload drilling barge in the swamps of Suriname.
The Hoverbarge technology is somewhat different to high-speed hovercraft, which has traditionally been constructed using aircraft technology. The initial concept of the air cushion barge has always been to provide a low-tech amphibious solution for accessing construction sites using typical equipment found in this area, such as diesel engines, ventilating fans, winches and marine equipment. The load to move a 200 ton payload ACV barge at would only be 5 tons. The skirt and air distribution design on the high-speed craft again is more complex as they have to cope with the air cushion being washed out by a wave and wave impact. The slow speed and large mono chamber of the hover barge actually helps reduce the effect of wave action giving a very smooth ride.
Hovertrain
Several attempts have been made to adopt air cushion technology for use in fixed track systems, in order to take advantage of the lower frictional forces so as to deliver high speeds. The most advanced example of this was the Aérotrain, an experimental high speed hovertrain built and operated in France between 1965 and 1977. The project was abandoned in 1977 due to lack of funding, the death of its lead engineer and the adoption of TGV by the French government as its high-speed ground transport solution.
A test track for a tracked hovercraft system was built at Earith near Cambridge, England. It ran SW from Sutton Gault, sandwiched between the Old Bedford River and the smaller Counter Drain to the West. Careful examination of the site will still reveal traces of the concrete piers used to support the structure. The actual vehicle, RTV31, is preserved at in Peterborough and can be seen from trains, just south west of the station. The vehicle achieved on the 7th of February 1973 (source Railway Magazine May 1973 p235) but the project was cancelled a week later. The project was managed by Tracked Hovercraft Ltd., with Denys Bliss as Director in the early 1970s, only to be axed by the Aerospace Minister, Michael Heseltine. Records of this project are available from the correspondence and papers of Sir Harry Legge-Bourke, MP at Leeds University Library. Heseltine was accused by Airey Neave and others of misleading the House of Commons when he stated that the government was still considering giving financial support to the Hovertrain, when the decision to pull the plug had already been taken by the Cabinet.
Despite promising early results, the Cambridge project was abandoned in 1973 due to financial constraints, but parts of the project were picked up by the engineering firm Alfred McAlpine, only to be finally abandoned in the mid 1980s. The Tracked Hovercraft project and Professor Laithwaite's Maglev train system were contemporaneous, and there was intense competition between the two prospective British systems for funding and credibility.
The RTV31 has been preserved together with a track piece at Railworld in Peterborough,(www.transecocentre.com).
At the other end of the speed spectrum, the Dorfbahn Serfaus has been in continuous operation since 1985. This is an unusual underground air cushion funicular rapid transit system, situated in the Austrian ski resort of Serfaus. Only long, the line reaches a maximum speed of . A similar system also exists in Narita International Airport near Tokyo, Japan.
Hoover Constellation
The Hoover Constellation was a canister-type vacuum cleaner notable for its lack of wheels. Floating on a cushion of air contained within a rubber skirt, it was a domestic hovercraft. While not especially good as vacuum cleaners (the air escaping from under the cushion blew uncollected dust in all directions), the original mid-1950s Constellations are highly sought-after collectibles today.
Hovercraft Records
- World's Largest Civil Hovercraft - The BHC SRN4 Mk III at 56.4 m (185 ft) length and 310 metric tons (305 long tons) weight, can accommodate 418 passengers and 60 cars.
- World's largest military hovercraft - The Russian Zubr class LCAC at 57.6 meters length and a maximum displacement of 535 tons. This hovercraft can transport three T-80 main battle tanks (MBT), 140 fully equipped troops, or up to 130 tons of cargo. Four have been purchased by the Greek Navy.
- English Channel crossing - 22 minutes by Princess Anne MCH SR-N4 Mk3 on September 14, 1995
- World's Hovercraft Speed Record - September 18, 1995 - Speed Trials, Bob Windt (USA) 137.4 km/h (85.87 mph), 34.06 secs measured kilometre
- Longest continuous use - The original prototype SR.N6 Mk. I (009) was in service for over twenty years, and logged a remarkable 22,000 hours of use. It is currently on display at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England.
Hobbyists
Small homebuilt and kit-built hovercraft are increasingly being used for recreational and racing purposes, mainly on inland lakes and rivers but also in marshy areas and in some estuaries. The regularly organizes inland and coastal cruising hovercraft races in various venues across the United Kingdom. Similar events are also held in the U.S.
Survivors
Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England is the home to the Hovercraft Museum which houses the world's largest collection of Hovercraft, including some of the earliest and largest. Much of the collection is housed within two retired SRN4 hovercraft, and many hovercraft in the collection are operational.
See also
External links
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