| OCR Text |
Show f Commuting by bubble (roots mac M) found 'ourselves seats among the hundreds in the Hovercraft's spacious cabin. Then, with a muffled scream from Hie gas turbines, we were skimming down the ramp and out across the brushy, hummocky marsh. We were flying, but at an altitude of only two feet or so. By the time wed crossed the shallows we were moving fast well over 100 mph. There was a nasty chop out on the Sound, with waves several feet high. But we rode smoothly. A Hovercraft on its cushion of air has little contact with the water. The run to the downtown landing ramp took about half an hour. Theyre for real 50-mi-le Hovercraft capable of everything Ive dedream boats. Theyre not scribed are no far-oonly in existence, theyve operated from the Isle of Wight to mainland England at 80 mph; across the Dee estuary, in Wales, and as rubberneck buses on the Thames. Last summer, a British SRN2 Westland Hovercraft carried 1,250 passengers in two weeks on demonstration runs on the St. Lawrence River near Montreal and across the notorious and (innavigable Lachine Rapids. The ACV I was aboard was a big 22J-tojob built by Textrons Bell Aerosystems for the Navy. ff n Bell calls theirs a Hydroskimmer, and its been flitting above the surface of Lake Erie at over 80 mph from a ramp in downtown Buffalo. Other American outfits are working on ACVs, too. Vehicle Research Corporation of Pasadena, Calif., is working with the Maritime Administra- tion on the 100-to- Columbia; 160-mp- h n, Re- public Aviation Corporation has a licensing agreeof Great Britain ment with h for a Hovercraft which is now being tested in this country, and Douglas Aircraft, which was to have' been the main subcontractor on Columbia," now has an ACV program of its own. The Russians, the Swedes and the French are also building Air Cushion Crafty but it is the British who are way out ahead of everyone else. vehicles is The basic concept of Christountil Briton wasnt but it pretty ancient, his Cockerell in 1955 Hovercraft pher patented that the current excitement started. The first outfit to build successful passengercarrying Hovercraft was Westland Aircraft, Limited, of Yeovil, England. They completed their an experimental seven-topnfirst machine in 1959 Now theyre regularly called the SRN-SRN-- 2 (the one that their operating ran in the St. Lawrence River near Montreal), and Vickers-Armstron- gs 65-mp- An ACV owes its peculiar ability to travel , above water or land to a cushion of air pumped under its belly by gas turbine engines driving fans. The air reaches the underride of the craft through a slot which runs around its edges. The air, of course, tries to leak out. , Major breakthrough Westlands big contribution, the major breakthrough which has made its Hovercraft practical, is a rubber skirt suspended all around their machine. The skirt holds the air in, and, being flexible, enables the craft to climb over obstacles and through rough seas. Airplane propellers drive the machine forward, while rudders like those air-cush- ion er 1. theyre about ready to test their latest 37 80 mph SRN-3-. They have on n craft designed for the drawing board a H-to- n, 170-to- ferrying of cars and passengers across the stormy English Channel. high-spee- d Navys Hydroskiumer: biggest ACV built in tke VJS. |
