Operation and Application
What is a hovercraft?
- a hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Hovercrafts are used throughout the world as specialized transports. They can also be used after a natural disaster for emergency purposes. Because they are supported by a cushion of air, hovercraft are unique among all other forms of ground transportation in their ability to travel equally well over land, ice, and water. Small hovercraft are used for sport or passenger service, while giant hovercraft have civilian and military applications, and are used to transport cars, tanks, and large equipment in rough terrain and harsh enviromental conditions
History/Current Events
Emanuel Swedenborg was the first person to ask "what if there was a machine that could hover not float not fly not roll or drive but hover" and so began the life of the hovercraft. In 1915 Austrian Dagobert Müller built the world's first air-cushion vehicle. Shaped like a section of a large aircraft wing, the craft was propelled forward by four aero engines, with a fifth that blew air under the front of the craft to increase the air pressure under it. In motion, the craft also trapped air under the front, increasing lift.The first design that would be recognized as a true hovercraft was designed by Finnish aero engineer Toivo J. Kaario in 1931Kaario's design included the modern features of a lift engine blowing air into a flexible envelope for lift. He built his first prototype the Pintaliitäjä translated into english this means surface soarer.2007 UK floods.In October 2008 The Red Cross commenced a flood-rescue service hovercraft based in Inverness, Scotland. Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service received two flood-rescue hovercraft donated by Severn Trent Water following the
Impacts
What is the environmental impact of hovercraft?
the hovercraft is the worlds largest ecofriendly vehichle beacuse it uses large fans to move instead of unseen amounts of gasoline and or crude oils and coal.
Individual/Organization Contribution Content
Charles J. Fletcher .............
While serving as a pilot in the U.S. Navy in Norfolk, Va., Charles J. Fletcher sketched the design for a vehicle envisioned to rise above the water or terrain (approximately 10 inches to two feet) depending on available horsepower. The vehicle would generate an airflow trapped against a uniform surface such as the ground or water, freeing it from the surface and eliminating friction. Positive control and movement would be attained using aircraft control techniques and the release of air. What Fletcher called the "Glidemobile" is known today ad the hovercraft. The hovercraft has proven to be a major advance in military land assault vehicles and modern inter-waterway travel. Hovercrafts are manufactured in the U.S. today and by Bell Aerosystems and sell for between $800,00 and $1.5 million each. Fletcher's claim as an inventor of the hovercraft, undocumented because the U.S. military suppressed the patent to keep the idea a secret, was recently validated during resolution of a lawsuit brought by British Hovercraft Ltd. against the United States, seeking royalties of $104 million. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice found a 1960 edition of Design News which featured an article on Fletcher's hovercraft. Fletcher was tracked down and his records on the project which included 16 mm films of the "Glidemobile," documentation regarding his conceptual drawings, subsequent work, model flight trials, and various news articles proved easy to destroy the Hovercraft Ltd. case. Fletcher earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the academy of Aeronautics at New York University in 1950. He holds 17 aeronautical patents on vertical lift and rocket engines plus five additional patents for industrial products.
