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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2134.PDF
Air-Cushion Vehicles FLIGHT International supplement, 20 September 1962 Soviet air-cushion vehicle. Since these were received the following information, which evidently relates to the same craft, has been provided from an official Soviet source: "The first Soviet hover craft passenger ship has just completed its initial trials. 56ft long and 20ft broad, the ship is essentially a rectangular horizontal platform supported on two floats. The platform carries a cabin for 40 passengers, the wheelhouse and the engine room. There are three aircraft engines with an overall capacity of 660 h.p. Two of them drive fans which create a cushion of air under the ship. The pressure beneath the platform exceeds atmospheric pressure only by 1.81b/sq in. But this is enough to lift the ship, which weighs over 12 tons, to a height of 2i'm. The third engine drives the craft forward at more than 30 m.p.h. and the ship is steered by air jets. "This experimental craft has now undergone preliminary surface tests. The main tests will be held soon in Leningrad on ice floes, on sandy slopes and in all conditions in which the ship will have to operate." On the Thanes In their annual report, dated July 1962, the London General Shipowner's Society (instituted in 1811) reports as follows:— "Surface Effect Vehicles Hovercraft and Hydrofoils): Anticipating the arrival of such craft in the River Thames in the not too distant future, the PLA issued tentative bye-laws to control their move ment. These have been circulated to Members, and comments received. "Nobody really knows the extent of the problems which may arise eventually but at this stage it is proposed not to allow such craft beyond Tilbury and a definite traffic lane is to be laid down for their use. Speed limits will be imposed and they will have to conform to normal navigational procedure. It may well be Host and Guests at a party in London to introduce the new Rank film So They All Hover Now were picture on left) Mr George Grafton Green, executive producer centre), Sir William Black, chairman of the National Research Development Corporation, and Mr J. C. Duckworth, managing director of NRDC. In the second picture are Mr Don Robertson, whose name is associated with the Robertson Skimmer, and Cdr Peter Lamb, chief test pilot, Westland Aircraft. Saunders-Roe Division that after some experience more definite bye-laws can be formulated. "It is obvious these craft will come, and even more so if we join the Common Market." On September 3 it was reported that the Port of London Authority had held private discussions with the Watermen, Lightermen, Tugmen and Bargemen's Union at which the use of air-cushion vehicles to ferry cars at points below Tilbury were considered. The Daily Telegraph reported that passenger ser vices along other sections of the river were also examined. Another possibil ity for the PLA of the future, the news paper said, is the lifting of cargo from ships in mid-stream to sheds on the shore. Entertainment and Promotion A new colour film from the Rank Organisation is not only excellent enter tainment but a potentially valuable medium of sales promotion abroad, for it will be screened in over 30 countries. Titled So They All Hover Now, it con tains vivid sequences shot over South ampton Water, round the Isle of Wight, and at Redhill, Surrey, Rhyl, North Wales, and Dumbarton, Scot land. The SR.N1 and N2, VA-3, Robertson Skimmer and Denny D. 1 are featured. No 182 of the popular Look at Life series, the film comes in the nature of a "Now, believe it or not, she says she's feeling seasick and airsick" © Reproduced from PUN:H R&Y progress report on air-cushion vehicle development, rather more than three years after No 21 of the series—Flight on a Cushion—was released in July 1959. This earlier film followed the Hover craft story from the time the inventor "first experimented on a couple of tins and his wife's vacuum cleaner" until the Channel crossing by SR.N1 on July 25, 1959. Leading personalities from the new industry—some of whom appear in pictures on this page—were guests of the Rank Organisation at a private showing of the new film in London last month. A Real "Hoovercraft" A few weeks ago Flight International's columnist Roger Bacon reported an interesting sidelight on the problem of finding a generic name for air-cushion vehicles. Up in the Rhyl district (where at that time the first public ACV service was imminent) the locals, he said, were calling the VA-3 the "Hoovercraft." This he considered poetic justice, because some of the earliest air-cushion experiments were made with vacuum- cleaner motors. We now have to report a sidelight on a sidelight, for Hoover Ltd state in a recent Press release: "An urgent request for a Hoover washing machine and Constellation cleaner to be sent from the Rhyl stores of Telehire Ltd to the Cheshire side of the Dee Estuary recently created a problem for the North Wales regional manager of the firm, Mr N. Hackett. A new way of beating traf fic jams on the roads had to be found if the appliances were to reach Eilesmere Port on the Wallasey side on time. Perhaps inspiration came to Mr Hackett when he remembered the "cushion of air" principle on which Constellation cleaners work, because he immediately thought of the Hovercraft (which, of course, works on the same principle) and which recently came into operation on a passenger service from Rhyl." Needless to say, "Operation Hoover" was put in hand and the goods were duly delivered to "a surprised and delighted customer." 52
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