Word: aliscafi
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...Denison, built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. for the U.S. Maritime Administration, is the U.S.'s first high speed hydrofoil ferryboat. But in Italy, hydrofoil ferries are old hat. Neapolitans scarcely spare a glance any more for the sleek, 140-passenger aliscafi (winged hulls) that skim out across the Bay of Naples four times a day on the tourist run to Capri 18 miles away...
...Italians comfortably out in front in commerical hydrofoil development is Carlo Rodriquez, 51, a tall, reticent Sicilian engineer whose Spanish ancestors settled in Italy 150 years ago. Since 1958 Rodriquez has turned out 42 hydrofoil ferries at his 500-man Messina shipyard. Today, his aliscafi wing between Venice and Trieste, thread the fjords of Norway, link Caribbean islands, and are about to begin regular service between Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Last year Rodriquez sold $3,100,000 worth of hydrofoils; this year, with $1,800,000 in sales so far, he expects to do substantially better...
Rodriquez' aliscafi come in two models: the 72-passenger PT 20, which is driven by a 1,350-h.p. Daimler-Benz V12 engine and will make up to 40 knots, and the 140-passenger PT 50. which has two V-12s and does 37 knots. Both were designed by Austrian Engineer Friedrich Lobau, who built his first hydrofoil for Hitler's navy and his second as a prisoner of war in Russia. (The Russian model, he now says...
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