Word: hovercrafts
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Skimming over waves ten feet high, the SR.N4 raced ahead at speeds as high as 53 m.p.h., carrying a crew of four and 28 passengers. The ride was surprisingly smooth. Reported Peter Lamb, chief test commander of British Hovercraft Corp.: "This will make seasickness a thing of the past...
...hundreds of spectators on England's Isle of Wight last week, it seemed for a moment as if the entire pier were suddenly roaring off into the water. What they actually witnessed, however, was the beginning of the maiden run of the SR.N4, the world's largest hovercraft. Driven by four 19½-ft. propellers and supported on a cushion of air, the 130-ft.-long, 76-ft.-wide craft moved smoothly into waters whipped into a frenzy by near-gale winds. As the London Times described it, "the huge amphibian lifted her skirts with commendable decorum...
...Maxi-Slcirt. Similar in design to smaller hovercraft already being used commercially in Britain (TIME, June 2), the SR.N4 is four times as big as any of its predecessors. When it goes into regular operation for British Rail between Dover and Boulogne, probably in August, it will carry more than 600 passengers-or 30 cars and 250 passengers. It will take only 30 or 35 minutes to cover the 30-mile cross-Channel route, and will reach speeds as high as 70 m.p.h. in calm seas...
Howe was testing a new air-cushion landing gear (ACLG) developed by Textron's Bell Aerosystems Co. of Buffalo. Based on the British Hovercraft principle (TIME, June 2) and conceived by Bell's T. Desmond Earl and Wilfred J. Eggington, the system employs an elastic bag made of laminated nylon and rubber attached to the underside of the plane. For takeoffs and landings, the bag is inflated through louvers in the plane's underbelly by a fan on board. Air is forced through hundreds of openings on the underside of the bag, producing an air cushion that...
Esoteric Future. The hover principle has equally good prospects in industry. British Hovercraft is producing hover pallets, air-cushion platforms that can be used to move heavy industrial loads. In a recent British Hovercraft demonstration, for example, a 41-ton machine tool on a hover pallet was easily pushed several feet by two men. By fixing a skirt around a 14-ton oil-storage tank at a military depot and pumping in air, hovercraft technicians were able to move the tank on a cushion of air across a road and a railroad line to a new location. A hover transporter...